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For    My 
MvisicaJ  Friend 


A  Series  of  Pra.ctica.1 
Essa.ys  on  Music 
a>.rvd     Music      Culture 


AUBERTINE   WOODWARD(mOOR.E 

(Auber    Forestier) 
Author  of  "  EcKoes  fronrv  Mist  La>.rvd,"  etc. 


NEW    YORK 

DODGE    PUBLISHING    COMPANV 

150     FIFTH    AVENVE 


[For  My  Musical  Friend.     4] 


COPYRIGHT  IN  THE  YEAR 
NINETEEN  HUNDRED  BY 
DODGE      PUBLISHING     CO. 


Contents 


Preface 

Purpose  of  this  volume.  Musical  friend  for 
whom  it  is  intended.  Music  recognized  as  the 
characteristic  art-form  of  modern  civilization. 
Not  always  rightly  comprehended.  Its  mis- 
sion. Words  of  Richard  Wagner.  Helpful 
auxiliaries.  A  wonderful  harp.  Sources  of 
essays    


Music 
Library 

H 

1  9on) 


17 


Mind,  Muscle  aLfid  Music 

Rhythm,  the  underlying  principle  of  life. 
Statement  of  a  scientist.  Noblest  offspring 
of  mind  and  muscle.  Intricate  action  of 
muscular  fibres.  Magnificent  apparatus  the 
servant  of  spiritual  and  intellectual  nature. 
Dancing  and  poetry.  Belief  and  custom 
among  Hindus  and  Egyptians.  Hebrew 
Psalmist  before  the  altar.  Relic  of  sacred 
dancing  at  Seville.  Why  the  average  music 
pupil  fails  to  play  or  sing  in  time.  Tattoo 
method.  Drilling  a  church  choir.  The 
rhythmic  pulse.  Chopin's  tempo  rubato. 
Trembling  light  of  Liszt 21 


For  My  MusiceLl  Friend 

The  Platno  and  Our  Girls 

American  home  captured  by  the  piano-forte. 
Vast  expenditures  on  piano  study.  Is  invest- 
ment wise?  How  far  in  accord  with  laws  of 
health?  Prominent  newspaper  inquiry  and 
medical  testimony.  Dangers  discovered.  Re- 
sult of  stupid  practising.  Benefit  of  suitable 
training.  Magnificent  means  of  physical,  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  development.  Advan- 
tages of  air,  exercise  and  wholesome  food. 
Why  health  of  so  many  girls  who  go  abroad 
for  study  is  wrecked.  The  sordidness  against 
which  Plutarch  warns.  Plato  urges  driving 
rhind  and  body  together,  like  a  pair  of  horses. 
A  well  balanced,  well  ordered  individual 33 

R.aLtionaLl  Methods  of  Music  Study 

An  important  factor  in  human  culture.  Ac- 
quaintance with  fundamental  principles  essen- 
tial to  education.  Need  of  comparing  methods 
with  those  of  other  branches  of  learning. 
What  is  expected  of  students  of  English  liter- 
ature. Helplessness  of  music  students. 
Technique  a  means  to  an  end.  Emanuel 
Bach's  piano-forte  system,  based  on  methods 
of  his  father,  Sebastian  Bach.  An  ennobling 
social  force.  A  universal  language.  To 
hear,  think  and  write  tones.  Schumann  on 
writing  music.     Theory  and  history  of  music. 

8 


Contents 

Resting  on  mere  mechanism  disastrous  to  the 
mind.  Faculty  of  which  Ruskin  tells.  Music 
not  meant  for  genius  alone.  How  to  listen  to 
music.  Work  for  public  schools.  Art  only 
wise  when  unselfish.  Schopenhauer's  defini- 
tion of  music 45 

The  Technique  thact  Endures 

Why  few  American  women  retain  their  musi- 
cal skill  on  to  middle  life.  Technique  of  the 
spirit.  What  Emerson  says  of  difficulties. 
Province  of  a  musical  education.  Degrees 
of  musical  gifts.  Musical  germ  either  stifled 
or  quickened  by  education.  A  cruelly  mar- 
tyred instrument.  Carl  Gaertner's  opinion 
and  teaching.  Musical  atmosphere.  Herbert 
Spencer  and  music  as  highest  in  the  hierarchy 
of  arts.  Every  child  can  be  taught  to  have 
and  to  hold  some  of  its  blessings 57 

Sight. R.ea.ding  in  Music 

After  seven  or  eight  years'  study  cannot  read 
a  page  without  smmbling.  High  time  to 
apply  advanced  pedagogical  methods.  Reck- 
less dissipation  of  force,  time  and  means. 
Concentration  of  well-trained  faculties 
needed.  Musical  course,  like  life,  one  long 
preparation.  Only  royal  road  to  musical 
knowledge.     How   to    translate    notes    into 

9 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

tones.  Solfege  system.  Talented  Americans 
abroad  fail  for  want  of  preparation.  Most 
people  endowed  with  capabilities  that  may 
lead  to  threshold  of  temple  where  genius  pre- 
sides        67 

Ho^v  to  Memorize  Music 

Schumann  on  memorizing.  Memory  a  qual- 
ity comprising  many  faculties.  May  become  a 
valuable  servant  of  every  normal  human  be- 
ing. Strengthened  by  use,  weakened  by  neg- 
lect. What  Sir  Wm.  Hamilton  says. 
Words  of  Quintilian.  Law  of  association. 
Close  your  eyes  and  look  within.  Carl 
Gaertner's  method.  Hans  von  Biilow  when 
conducting  Meiningen  orchestra.  Anecdote 
of  Erika  Lie  Nissen.  Requisites  prescribed 
by  Schumann.  Clara  Schumann  and  her 
father,  Fr.  Wieck.  How  to  make  memory 
enduring.  French  philosopher  Pascal. 
Words  of  Lord  Chesterfield ']^ 

The  Pia-nist's  Left  Ha.nd 

Hand  of  man  one  of  the  most  distinctive 
characteristics.  Unerring  exponent  of  phys- 
ical and  mental  conditions.  One  hand  rele- 
gated to  subordinate  place.  Carlyle,  at  sev- 
enty-five. Right-hand  mentioned  as  organ 
of  power  in   Scriptures  and   in  classic   lore. 

JO 


Contents 

Words  of  Prophet  Isaiah.  Left-handed 
people  deft-handed.  Left-handed  marksmen 
in  Judges  and  Chronicles.  Ambidexterity 
conducive  to  success.  Good  piano  music 
makes  equal  demands  on  the  hands.  Father 
Bach  gave  play  to  both.  Beethoven  expects 
all  ten  fingers  to  obey  his  behests.  Educated 
hand  most  perfect  instrument  by  means  of 
which  imagination  and  idealism  are  translated 
into   fact 89 


Touch  and  Tone  li\  Piano  PlaLying 

A  professor  of  music  on  touch  and  tone. 
Good  touch  lies  rather  in  the  brain  than  in  the 
fingers.  Helmholtz  spanned  gulf  between 
science  of  acoustics  and  art  of  music.  Rubin- 
stein revealed  capabilities  of  the  piano-forte. 
Russian  tone-painter.  Rubini's  voice.  Musi- 
cal touch  philosopher's  stone  in  piano-playing. 
Sebastian  Bach's  playing.  What  his  son 
Emanuel  taught.  Musical  instrument  of  the 
day.  Liszt,  the  prophet,  Chopin,  the  poet  of 
the  piano-forte.  Legato  of  Thalberg.  A  mas- 
ter of  the  keyboard.  Von  Biilow,  a  model  of 
classical  correctness.  The  brilliant  Pole, 
Paderewski.  Exquisite  inner  sense  of  tone- 
color.  Strength  combined  with  lightness 
requisite    99 

u 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

How  to  Study  Music 

Carlyle's  farewell  to  Tyndall.  Only  by  giv- 
ing yourself  royally  can  the  best  that  is  in 
music  be  grasped.  Value  of  concentration. 
Emanuel  Bach.  Head,  heart  and  hands.  Se- 
bastian Bach  on  the  fingers.  To  write  music 
from  memory.  What  Schumann  calls  the 
highest  degree  of  musicianship.  Music 
poorly  learned  if  a  page  of  notes  cannot  be 
easily  read.  How  music  shall  fulfil  its 
mission 113 

When  a-nd  How  to  Begin 

Fancied  signs  of  talent  lead  a  mother  to  con- 
sider piano  lessons  for  her  child.  Bewil- 
dered by  conflicting  counsels.  Recalls  thrum- 
ming at  a  neighbor's.  Intuitively  approaches 
a  truth.  Beautiful  tone.  Important  question 
to  settle.  Simple  test.  Not  a  bad  idea  to  begin 
with  some  minor  instrument.  Choice  of  teacher. 
How  to  avoid  making  a  pupil  a  slavish  de- 
pendent. A  good  plan  in  teaching  rudiments. 
Benefit  of  a  musical  education  in  the  lines  in- 
dicated      119 

My  La-dy  and  Her  Piano 

Americans  proverbially  wasteful.  Too  apt  to 
appropriate  outer  form,  leaving  inner  sub- 
stance unheeded.    My  lady  soon  loses  what 

12 


Contents 

was  mere  surface  decoration.  In  no  study  so 
long  dependent  on  teacher  as  in  music.  How 
to  avoid  this.  To  make  music  valuable  in  the 
home.  A  power  in  the  family.  What  Karl 
Merz  said.  Sayings  of  Martin  Luther.  Lan- 
guage of  music  one  of  noblest  aspiration. 
Gives  strength  and  fresh  zest  to  life.  Chil- 
dren started  and  guided  aright 129 

Time-Keeping  in  Music 

Shakespeare  on  time.  Ugliness  of  false 
time.  Schumann's  directions.  What  time- 
keeping in  music  involves.  The  soul  of 
music.  Rhythm.  Metre.  Movement,  or 
tempo.  Audible  symmetry.  One  model  of 
music  in  Nature.  Physical  and  discriminat- 
ing sense  of  rhythm.  Uncurbed  sentimental- 
ism  neither  scholarly  nor  artistic.  Intellec- 
tual expression  without  spontaneity  unsatisfac- 
tory. Use  and  abuse  of  the  metronome. 
Pernicious  count  habit.  Best  preparation  for 
time-keeping.  How  to  develop  natural  throb 
of  rhythmic  pulsation.  Time  strictness  and 
time  freedom.     What  Dr.  Marx  says 137 

Music  Qls  Medicine 

A  music  bower.  Is  modern  attempt  to  utilize 
music  in  domain  of  medicine  a  mere  fad? 
Medicine  men  of  barbarous  and  semi-civilizec' 

J3 


For  My  Musical  FriMui 

tribes.  Beliefs  of  ancient  civilizations. 
Apollo.  Orpheus.  Chiron,  wisest  of  Cen- 
taurs. Hercules.  Aesculepius.  Homer  on 
music.  Galen,  Father  of  Medicine.  Plato, 
as  to  music  and  gymnastics.  Plutarch's 
treatise  on  music.  Harmonious  order. 
Music  among  the  Hebrews.  Luther  on  music 
as  means  of  warfare  against  the  powers  of 
evil.  Shakespeare's  testimony.  Recent  re- 
vival of  music  as  a  curative  force.  New 
school  of  healing 145 

The  HaLrp  OLnd  HaLrpers 

Long  and  honorable  pedigree.  Musical  in- 
strument of  religion  and  prophecy.  Vision 
of  the  beloved  John.  New  wheel  and  new 
harp.  Walt  Whitman  saw  hope  in  the  West. 
City  of  promise.  Poetry  not  dead.  Ancient 
and  modern  harp.  Egyptian  records.  Harp 
of  Assyrians  and  of  Israelites.  Lyre  of 
Greece.  A  city  sacred  to  Apollo.  Tradition 
of  the  Hyperboreans.  Druidic  harp-lore. 
Irish  legends.  Tom  Moore  and  the  harp. 
Among  the  Welsh.  King  Alfred.  Oxford 
School  of  music.  Scottish  Highlands.  Scan- 
dinavian folk-lore.  Icelandic  legends. 
Heimer,  Aslaug,  Brynhild  and  Sigurd.  The 
Finns  and  Wainamoinen.  Story  of  Horand, 
the   Harper,   in   "Gudrun."    Mediaeval   harp. 


Contents 

Erard's  double  action.  Rose  Dartle,  in 
"David  Copperfield."  Taste  fostered  by  gen- 
tle nuns.     Harp  of  Chicago.     New  interest..  157 

GuitSLr  and  MaLndolin: 

Their  Story  and  Mission 

Two  faithful  servitors  of  music.  Guitar,  a 
delightful  introduction  to  musical  education. 
A  three-voiced  fugue  successfully  produced 
on  it.  Mandolin  furnishes  preparation  for 
violin.  Beethoven  wrote  mandolin  "Sona- 
tina" for  Krumpholz.  Autograph  in  British 
Museum.  Taste  for  refined  music  cultivated 
by  mandolin  orchestras.  On  Egyptian  monu- 
ments. The  Ood.  Vina  of  India  lauded  in 
Hindu  poetry.  Sarasvati.  Brahma.  Nareda. 
Hindu  sitar  and  rabab.  Hardanger  fiddle. 
Hebrew  psaltery.  The  Mahalath.  Dorian 
and  a  "tempest  in  a  tea-pot."  Chinese,  Japan- 
ese, Persians,  Arabians,  Moors  and  Span- 
iards. Boccaccio,  Chaucer  and  Shakespeare. 
Schools  of  Carulli  and  Carcassi.  Stradiva- 
rius.  Paganini.  Berlioz.  Therbo,  in 
"Cyrano  de  Bergerac."  Mandolins  of  Paro- 
chia  and  of  Battiste.  Various  modern  instru- 
ments. Plectrum,  or  pick.  Master  works 
for  violin  reproduced  on  mandolin i6g 

As  to  the  History  of  Music 

Dull,  lifeless  course  profitless.    True  knowl- 

15 


For  Mv  Mxisical  Friend 

edge  a  powerful  factor  in  understanding 
music.  Most  subjective  of  all  arts.  In  pres- 
ent form  product  of  our  civilization.  Prime 
elements  old  as  humanity.  Function  of 
music.  Growth  of  tone  language.  Guide  to 
human  progress.  What  music  gained 
through  Mozart  and  Beethoven.  Complex 
individuality  of  nineteenth  century  needed  to 
ripen  music  to  complex  personal  art.  What 
twentieth  century  may  accomplish.  Opens 
doors  to  delightful  world  of  thought. 
Modern  scientific  methods.  Bursting  bonds 
of  isolation.  Divine  origin  ascribed  by 
ancients.  What  the  study  makes  clear. 
Schumann's  tribute  to  it.  An  unquestionable 
aid  in  making  beautiful  and  impressive  music.  179 


16 


PrefoLce 


This  volume  is  a  result  of  lifelong  study, 
observation  and  reflection.  Its  purpose  is  to 
indicate  how  the  rational  methods  applied  to- 
day in  other  branches  of  learning  may  be 
brought  to  bear  on  the  music  lesson,  how  reck- 
less waste  of  time  and  effort  may  be  avoided, 
and  how  music  may  gain  its  rightful  place  as 
a  beneficent  influence  in  daily  life.  The  mu- 
sical friend  for  whom  it  is  intended  may  be 
found  in  every  home  where  music  has  entered, 
and  among  all  lovers  and  students  of  the  art. 

Music,  born  of  mind  and  muscle,  is  freely 

recognized  as  the  characteristic    art-form    of 

modern  civilization.     No  one  with  any  claims 

to  culture  can  afford  to  be  ignorant  of  it     In 

\7 


Prefa-ce 

common  with  religion,  whose  faithful  comrade 
it  has  ever  been,  it  has  not  always  been  rightly 
comprehended,  and  has  consequently  too  often 
failed  in  its  mission  to  uplift,  broaden, 
.strengthen  and  sweeten  human  existence.  As 
it  becomes  better  understood  and  more  truly 
enjoyed,  the  blessings  it  has  at  its  bestowal 
will  be  more  fully  realized. 

"It  is  knowledge  that  is  destined  to  nourish 
the  holy  flame  of  art  in  its  disciples,"  says 
Richard  Wagner.  The  search  for  this  knowl- 
edge is  within  the  province  of  every  earnest 
person.  Without  a  close  acquaintance  there 
can  be  no  appreciation,  and  the  average  man 
and  woman,  young  and  old,  may  at  least  taste 
of  this  appreciation.  A  helpful  auxiliary  in 
the  search  is  that  home  companion,  the  piano- 
forte, the  instrument  par  excellence,  by  means 
of  which  may  best  be  gained  some  idea  of 
every  species  of  music;  but  it  is  not  the  sole 

18 


PrefaLce 

auxiliary.  There  are  other,  in  many  respects, 
more  satisfying  mediums,  pre-eminent  among 
them  the  human  voice,  the  vioHn  and  the  pipe 
organ.  The  Hstener,  as  well  as  the  performer 
on  string,  wind  and  other  instruments  has  at 
his  command  that  wonderful  harp  of  more 
than  a  thousand  strings,  with  its  delicately 
refined  sounding-board,  that  lies  concealed 
within  the  ear  of  man.  By  virtue  of  it  music 
is  conveyed  to  the  inmost  soul,  there  arousing 
thoughts,  emotions  and  aspirations  no  other 
force  could  call  into  being. 

The  essays  in  the  following  pages  are  de- 
signed to  awaken  thoughts  along  these  lines. 
They  arc,  to  a  large  extent,  based  on  sketches 
that  have  been  issued,  during  the  past  few 
years,  in  sundry  daily  and  weekly  journals, 
and  have  been  extensively  copied.  Essays 
IV.,  v.,  VI.,  VII.,  X.  and  most  of  Essay  VIII. 
are  reproduced,  with  slight  changes,  from 
Harper's  Bazar;  Essay  XV.  and  a  portion  of 
\9 


Prefa.ce 

Essay  XI.  were  printed  in  the  Ladies' 
World;  Essay  IX.  appeared  in  the  Etude,  and 
Essays  XII.  and  XVI.  were  written  exclusively 
for  the  present  series.  The  remaining  five 
essays  are  remodeled  from  a  group  that  was 
given  to  the  public  in  numerous  prominent 
newspapers,  East  and  West,  through  the  serv- 
ice of  "Maynard's  Press  Agency"  of  New 
York.  The  privilege  of  using  all  that  has 
previously  appeared  in  print  is  kindly  accorded 
by  the  various  publishers. 

AuBERTiNE  Woodward  Moore. 
Madison,  Wis. 


20 


FOR.  MY  MUSICAL   FRIEND 


Mind,   M\iscle   ©Lr\d  M\isic 

A  MOST  important  role  in  all  that  we  hear, 
feel  or  see  is  played  by  rhythm,  or  measured 
movement.  It  is  the  underlying  principle  of 
life.  It  is  the  central  force  of  whatever 
breathes,  moves  or  has  a  being.  It  is  the  one 
model  music  finds  in  nature. 

There  is  a  measured  movement  in  the  cours- 
ing of  the  blood  through  the  veins,  in  the 
throbbing  and  quivering  of  heart,  pulse,  mus- 
cle and  nerve.  The  rush  of  the  waterfall,  the 
ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide,  the  sweep  of  the  wind 
and  the  swaying  of  the  foliage,  all  have  their 
rhythmic  beat. 

21 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

The  sense  of  rhythm  in  man  has  been  traced 
to  muscular  contraction  and  relaxation.  This 
fact  led  a  wise  scientist  not  long  since  to  make 
the  startling  assertion  that  music  had  its  origin 
in  muscular  action,  not  in  the  passions.  He 
lost  sight  of  the  profound  cause  for  this  mus- 
cular action. 

Both  in  man  and  in  the  lower  animals  cer- 
tain movements  accompany  certain  kinds  and 
degrees  of  emotion,  and  the  natural  gesticula- 
tions or  mo.vements  caused  by  impatience, 
anger,  grief,  pain,  joy  or  pleasure  have  their 
attendant  vocal  utterances  that  are  universally 
recognized  as  belonging  to  them.  The  actions 
or  utterances  of  pain,  for  instance,  could  not 
possibly  be  confounded  with  those  of  enjoy- 
ment; nor  could  a  manifestation  of  wrath  be 
mistaken  for  one  of  delight.  Behind  the  agi- 
tations of  the  muscles  there  are  the  feelings 
and  emotions,  which  must  be  viewed  as  the 
absolutely  indispensable  muscular  stimuli. 

The  muscles  and  chords  of  the  vocal  appa- 
ratus expand  and  contract,  like  other  muscles, 
in  proportion  to  the  intensity  of  the  emotions. 

22 


Mind,  Muscle  and  Mvsic 

The  manifold  cadences  of  the  human  voice 
are  the  result  of  the  highest  muscular  and 
emotional  effort.  When  human  fingers  pro- 
duce tones  through  the  medium  of  keys  or 
strings  of  some  musical  instrument,  the  con- 
trolling muscles  are  guided,  in  their  turn,  by 
an  unseen  inner  force. 

Thus  it  may  safely  be  asserted  that  the 
foundation  of  humanity's  divine  art  of  music 
lies  in  muscular  action  plus  its  motive  power 
which  is  seated  in  that  mysterious  something 
that  perceives,  thinks,  feels,  remembers,  rea- 
sons, wills  and  desires,  and  that  we  call  the 
mind.  Webster  defines  it  as  the  intellectual  or 
rational  faculty  in  man;  the  understanding; 
the  power  that  conceives,  judges  or  reasons; 
also  the  entire  spiritual  nature;  the  soul. 

Here  we  have  mind,  muscle  and  music. 
The  noblest  offspring  of  the  union  of  mind 
and  muscle  is  music.  The  more  advanced  the 
develo'pment  attained  by  the  spiritual  and  in- 
tellectual powers,  the  more  exalted  will  be  the 
music  conceived  during  their  reign. 

Even  as  a  mechanical  exhibition  our  mus- 

23 


For  My  Musica.1  Friend 

cular  fibres  in  operation  would  afford  a  superb 
spectacle,  for  bewilderingly  intricate  actions 
take  place  during  our  most  commonplace  move- 
ments. This  magnificent  physical  apparatus 
is  the  servant  of  the  complex  and  varied  emo- 
tions of  our  spiritual  and  intellectual  nature. 
The  results  are  far-reaching,  and  their  utmost 
possibilities  are  by  no  means  attained. 

Dancing  and  poetry,  like  music,  testify  to 
the  union  of  muscular  and  mental  excitement. 
From  time  immemorial  the  important  events 
of  life  have  been  celebrated  with  music  and 
dancing.  The  more  primitive  the  people  the 
more  decided  and  regular  was  the  rhythmic 
accentuation  employed,  and  the  more  marked 
the  preference  for  instruments  of  percussion. 
In  the  absence  of  musical  instruments,  time  for 
the  dance  was  kept  by  stamping  the  feet,  clap- 
ping the  hands,  or  striking  together  wooden 
clappers.  This  rhythmic  noise,  in  many  in- 
stances, was  supposed  also  to  serve  the  emi- 
nently useful  purpose  of  banishing  evil  spirits. 

The  people  of  ancient  India  devoutly  be- 
lieved that  Alother  Nature,  who  made  the  blood 
24 


Mind,  Muscle  a-nd  M\isic 

course  through  the  veins  and  the  pulses  thrill 
with  a  rhythmic  measure,  had  herself  implanted 
within  the  soul  a  supreme  sense  of  rhythmic 
sound  and  rhythmic  motion.  In  the  Hindu 
sacred  drama,  song,  instrumental  music,  danc- 
ing and  scenic  effect  were  equally  employed. 
This  may  be  viewed  as  a  foretaste  of  our 
modern  musical  drama. 

Swaying  movements  of  the  body  were  sup- 
posed by  various  peoples  of  old  to  be  grateful 
to  deity.  Even  the  learned  Egyptian  priests 
trod  mystic  measures  in  honor  of  the  sun-god, 
while  addressing  to  him  their  songs  of  prayer 
and  praise,  and  regarded  the  dance  as  the 
earthly  symbol  of  the  course  of  the  heavenly 
bodies. 

The  Hebrew  Psalmist  himself  danced  about 
the  altar,  and  the  dance  became  a  factor  in  the 
worship  of  some  Christian  sects.  The 
rhythmic  motions  of  the  body  expressed  the 
religious  emotions  of  the  soul,  precisely  as 
devout  feelings  are  sometimes  expressed  in 
what  is  known  as  intoning,  or  in  the  rising 
and  falling  inflection  employed  by  those  whose 
2S 


For  My  M\isica.l  Friend 

practice  it  is  to  speak  under  the  influence 
of  religious  exaltation.  A  curious  relic  of 
sacred  dancing  is  still  preserved  in  the  great 
cathedral  of  Seville.  There,  three  times  each 
year,  ten  choristers,  attired  as  pages  of  Philip 
the  Second,  dance  in  front  of  the  altar  a  stately 
measure,  lasting  about  half  an  hour.  The 
clinking  of  castanets  and  a  three-part  hymn, 
sustained  by  the  orchestra,  accompany  their 
movements. 

If,  then,  rhythm  be  inherent  in  mankind, 
why  does  the  average  music  pupil  so  often 
fail  to  play  or  sing  in  time?  Why  is  it  the 
most  troublesome  part  of  a  teacher's  task  to 
guide  his  charges  to  that  exquisite  realization 
of  rhythm  that  leads  to  the  right  expression 
and  imparts  character  to  the  composition  ren- 
dered ?     The  reason  may  readily  be  explained. 

The  regular  recurrence  of  marked  accen- 
tuation characterizing  the  dance,  the  direct  out- 
growth of  the  physical  sense  of  rhythm,  is 
calculated,  if  unbroken,  to  become  monotonous 
to  people  of  mature  intelligence,  and  man's 
inventive  spirit,  in  due  time,  began  to  devise 
26 


Mind,  Muscle  a^nd  Music 

sub-accentuations  in  groups  and  figures  for 
phrasing  and  expression.  So,  with  the 
metrical  accent  as  a  basis,  there  have  arisen 
numberless  art  or  fancy  rhythms,  the  observ- 
ance of  which  is  essential  to  a  sympathetic  in- 
terpretation of  a  composition  and  calls  into 
requisition  the  interpreter's  best  faculties. 

Now,  the  trouble  has  been  that  those  engaged 
in  the  work  of  musical  instruction  have  in 
the  majority  of  cases  neglected  to  cultivate  the 
relationship  between  the  mental  discrimina- 
tion of  rhythm  and  the  physical  sense.  What 
is  called  a  musical  education  has  too  often 
failed  to  unite  theory  and  practice,  has  per- 
mitted technical  drill  to  lead  to  mere  mechan- 
ical, soulless  practice,  and  has  consequently 
dulled  the  native  sensibilities,  without  sharpen- 
ing the  artistic  perceptions. 

Every  student  of  music  should,  from  the  be- 
ginning of  his  studies,  be  trained  to  distinguish 
each  form  of  rhythm  with  which  he  is  brought 
into  contact.  In  making  the  acquaintance  of 
a  new  composition  it  should  be  analyzed,  phrase 
by  phrase,  in  order  that  an  accurate  conception 
27 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

of  its  rhythms  may  be  gained  before  any  at- 
tempt is  made  to  interpret  it.  The  metrical 
signature  and  the  tempo  or  time-measure  should 
first  be  noted,  then  the  rhythm  of  the  theme  or 
motive,  and  the  rhythms  of  the  various  figures 
based  on  this,  as  well  as  the  rhythm  of  the  ac- 
companiment. This  practice  affords  the  true 
way  of  arriving  at  the  idea  underlying  the 
musical  forms  and  of  attaining  a  comprehen- 
sion of  music  as  a  language.  It  should  be 
undertaken  silently  at  first,  as  a  pure  mental 
effort,  until  the  various  groups  are  stamped 
on  the  inner  consciousness,  then  repeated 
orally,  and  finally  the  rhythmic  figures  should 
be  beaten  with  the  fingers  on  a  table,  or  on 
the  knee,  as  on  a  drum. 

A  class  of  children  may  be  trained  to  fa- 
miliarity with  fundamental  rhythms  by  the 
clapping  or  tattoo  method.  First  they  can 
be  led  to  denote  dual  rhythm  by  beating  strong, 
weak,  strong,  weak,  etc.,  and  then  triple 
rhythm,  by  beating  strong,  weak,  weak,  etc. 
After  this  some  of  the  class  may  be  allowed 
to  beat  whole  notes,  against  the  half,  fourth, 
28 


FKIKORICH    CHOPIN 


Mind,  Muscle  and  M\isic 

eighth  and  sixteenth  notes  of  others.  Also 
triplets  may  be  marked  against  even  time. 

More  advanced  classes  may  in  the  same  way 
gain  the  mastery  over  complicated  art  forms. 
It  is  interesting  to  inspire  a  group  of  students 
to  test  one  another's  powers  of  rhythmic  dis- 
crimination through  a  series  of  compositions. 
Let  one  beat  the  theme  of  a  familiar  composi- 
tion on  a  table,  and  let  the  others  decide  to 
what  composition  it  belongs.  Then  let  each  in 
turn  beat  out  the  more  complicated  rhythmic 
figures  arising  from  the  theme,  and  require  the 
others  to  translate  the  rhythmic  tattoo  into 
notes.  Music  students  taught  in  this  way  de- 
velop keen  mental  discrimination,  and  are  not 
likely  to  lose  the  rhythmic  flow  of  any  part 
of  a  composition. 

One  of  the  surest  ways  of  deadening  the 
perceptions  and  rendering  impossible  a  dis- 
criminating mental  sense  of  rhythm  is  the  mis- 
taken habit  of  continually  counting  aloud  or 
tapping  the  floor  with  the  foot  while  practis- 
ing. The  audible  count  has  its  use  in  first 
marking  the  value  of  notes,  but  those  who  be- 
29 


For  My  M\isical  Friend 

come  slaves  to  it  acquire  in  their  nnisical  per- 
formances the  same  sing-song,  rocking,  unin- 
telligent tone  children  put  into  their  reading 
when  taught  to  emphasize  feet  and  rhymes 
rather  than  sentiment.  After  fully  realizing 
the  metrical  beat,  it  is  wise  to  remember  that. 
metre,  movement,  rhythms  and  phrasing  con- 
vey to  us  the  musical  idea  which  we  should 
make  our  own  by  earnest  study  and  through 
quickened  intuitions. 

In  drilling  a  church  choir  I  have  often  found 
it  necessary  to  count  aloud,  or  beat  the  metrical 
measure  until  it  was  grasped  by  the  singers, 
and  then  devise  sundry  ways  and  means  of 
forcing  them  to  correctness  in  phrasing.  I  re- 
member one  soprano,  in  especial,  who  was 
wholly  unable  to  feel,  consequently  to  interpret 
complicated  art  rhythms,  until  I  had  beaten 
them,  tattoo  fashion,  on  her  shoulder.  Then 
they  seemed  'to  become  part  of  herself,  and  I 
had  no  further  trouble  in  getting  her  to  sing  the 
passages  containing  them  with  fair  intelligence. 
"When  I  look  at  the  notes,  or  think  of  them 
after  you  have  beaten  them  into  me,"she  once 
30 


Mind,  Muscle  etnd  Music 

said  to  me,  "they  seem  to  throb  through  my 
pulses."  That  is  precisely  what  the  notes  and 
groups  of  notes  with  which  we  have  to  deal 
should  do. 

When  we  can  learn  to  heed  the  rhythmic 
pulse  within  us,  and  use  it  as  a  foundation  to 
build  upon,  we  shall  have  no  difficulty  whatever 
in  cultivating  a  true  sense  of  art  rhythm  and  of 
music  as  the  higher  language  of  the  inner  life 
of  our  complex  being.  We  can  then  main- 
tain our  clearness  of  vision  and  our  mental 
equilibrium,  and  make  a  successful  musical 
performance,  whether  attempting  a  strongly 
accentuated  tempo  or  that  tempo  rubato  of  the 
Pole,  Chopin,  which  Liszt  compared  to  the 
trembling  light  resulting  from  the  passage  of 
the  sun's  rays  between  the  leaves  of  a  tree 
swayed  by  the  wind.  Even  in  this  tempo 
rubato  the  idea  of  the  relative  value  of  the 
notes  will  never  be  lost  by  one  properly  edu- 
cated in  rhythm. 


3J 


II 

The  Piotno  and  0\ir  Girls 

The  American  home  has  beeen  captured  by 
the  piano-forte.  The  American  girl,  beyond 
all  others,  is  involved  in  the  delights  and  in 
the  dangers  to  which  its  dazzling  allurements 
lead.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  our  boys,  even 
more  than  our  girls,  need  the  charming  home 
means  of  passing  from  the  rude  materialism 
of  an  earthly  struggle  for  existence  to  the 
choice  treasures  of  an  ideal  world  that  may  be 
drawn  from  the  piano's  bank.  Nevertheless, 
it  is  mainly  our  girls  who  occupy  themselves 
with  the  instrument,  actuated  by  love  of  music, 
love  of  display,  or  love  of  pecuniary  gain,  as 
the  case  may  be. 

There  is  scarcely  a  family  of  any  pretensions 
in  the  land,  at  least  one  of  whose  daughters 
does  not  hope  to  attain  some  proficiency  as 
33 


The  Pia-no  and  0\ir  Girls 

a  piano  player.  In  these  days  of  continually 
increasing  technical  demands,  even  on  the 
amateur,  much  time,  patience,  strength  and 
wealth  are  being  expended  to  attain  this  pro- 
ficiency. Almost  every  community  can  show 
a  large  number  of  girls  who  devote  several 
hours  each  day  to  piano  practise.  Is  the  ex- 
penditure a  wise  one?  This  question  is  trou- 
bling many  earnest  minds. 

The  fact  is,  the  returns  are  meagre  in  con- 
sideration of  what  might  reasonably  be  ex- 
pected of  the  investment.  Moreover,  it  is 
repeatedly  asked  how  far  the  exacting  require- 
ments of  the  piano  are  in  accord  with  the  laws 
of  health,  and  to  what  degree  the  keyboard  is 
responsible  for  the  nervousness,  defective 
sight,  and  stoop  shoulders  of  the  age.  A  sus- 
picion is  afloat  that  something  is  wrong. 
Thinkers  are  endeavoring  to  discover  what 
that  something'  is. 

In  view  of  gaining  light  on  so  important 
a  subject,  the  management  of  a  prominent 
newspaper  recently  addressed  a  circular  letter 
to  certain  eminent  medical  men,  inquiring  how 

34 


For  My  MusicolI  Friend 

long  a  student,  in  average  good  health,  might 
practise  instrumental  music  with  safety.  The 
piano  and  our  girls  were  doubtless  the  chief 
objects  of  consideration  with  the  author  of 
the  circular.  They  were  apparently  upper- 
most in  the  minds  of  the  authorities  who  re- 
sponded. A  consensus  of  the  opinions  ex- 
pressed in  the  replies  will,  therefore,  harmonize 
with  the  present  theme. 

The  length  of  time  that  could  safely  be  em- 
ployed, it  was  stated,  depended  largely  on  the 
age,  individual  temperament,  and  general  oc- 
cupations of  a  student.  Girls  were  thought  to 
have  less  endurance  than  boys.  It  might  well 
have  been  added  that  they  are  apt  to  have 
fewer  balancing  employments,  and  are  more 
frequently  tempted  to  undue  exertions  through 
ambition  for  social  glory.  One  of  the  main 
difficulties  was  considered  to  arise  from  the 
fact  that  the  piano  frequently  stands  in  the  dark 
corner  of  a  room  filled  with  dead  air,  and 
either  under  or  over-heated.  Bending  for- 
ward and  straining  the  eyes  to  read  the  notes, 
in  an  improper  light  and  atmosphere,  is  almost 
35 


The  Piak.no  and  Our  Girls 

sure  to  cause  defective  vision  and  other  phy- 
sical injuries.  Another  danger  attracting  at- 
tention v^as  the  continuous  use  of  the  same 
set  of  muscles  from  sitting  long  in  one  posi- 
tion, causing  headache,  backache  and  per- 
manent spinal  exhaustion. 

The  danger  to  a  young  spine  w^as  deemed 
especially  great  when  the  feet  were  without 
support,  and  it  was  advised  that  children  under 
ten  should  not  be  permitted  to  practise  more 
than  two  hours  daily,  broken  into  several 
periods,  with  plenty  of  outdoor  exercise  inter- 
vening. An  adult  might  be  allowed  from  three 
to  six  hours,  interrupted  in  the  same  way.  All 
our  organs  and  faculties  are  improved  and 
strengthened  by  habitual  use,  not  overstepping 
the  limits  of  endurance;  but  harm  inevitably 
results  from  excessive  weariness.  Inability  to 
lay  aside  thoughts  of  work  in  rest  periods, 
wakefulness  at  night  and  lassitude  in  the 
morning  should  promptly  be  heeded. 

Appealing  to  our  emotions,  music  produces 
fatigue  on  too  close  application,  more  through 
nervous  tension  even  than    through    physical 

36 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

exertion.  The  apt  pupil  is  the  one  who  will 
be  found  least  able  to  withstand  the  strain. 
We  need  to  conserve  the  health  of  our  children 
if  we  would  see  them  successful  and  happy. 
Few  highly  cultured  people  possess  that  phy- 
sical endurance  resulting  from  well-trained 
bodies  on  which  success  in  life  depends,  con- 
sequently few  are  eminently  successful. 

One  authority,  perhaps  unwittingly,  fur- 
nishes the  key  to  the  problem  by  stating  that 
children  will  develop  better,  both  mentally  and 
physically,  by  engaging  in  what  interests 
them,  and  that  more  evil  than  good  will  be 
accomplished  by  making  a  stupid  business  of 
practising  when  mind  and  heart  are  not  in  the 
work.  He  advises  turning  loose  the  child 
who  has  no  aptitude  for  music,  and  waiting 
for  it  to  display  some  natural  bent,  before  be- 
ginning any  course  of  education. 

With  the  last  proposition  the  writer  of  these 
pages  does  not  agree.  Every  child  should 
have  at  least  rudimentary  training  in  either 
vocal  or  instrumental  music,  and  unless  ham- 
pered by  some  insurmountable  deficiency  will 

37 


The  PieLno  aLi\d  Our  Girls 

thus  develop  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  an 
ability  to  enjoy  and  appreciate  the  divine  art. 
Not  every  one  need  be  expected  to  devote  the 
same  amount  of  time  to  the  study. 

It  is,  however,  indeed  true  that  more  evil 
than  good  will  ensue  from  making  a  stupid 
business  of  practising  w'hen  the  mind  and  heart 
lack  sympathy  with  the  work.  This  is  pre- 
cisely what  is  to  be  avoided  in  an  intelligent 
course  of  music  study,  and  a  well  advised 
order  of  time  application.  It  is  a  teacher's 
business  to  see  to  it  that  the  work  is  not  stupid, 
and  that  heart  and  mind  are  thoroughly  en- 
grossed in  it.  A  piano  course  should  not  be 
a  dull  series  of  finger  gymnastics.  More  than 
any  other  study  it  should  occupy  head,  heart 
and  body  to  an  equal  degree. 

When  a  girl  is  taught  the  correct  position  of 
the  hands  and  fingers  it  should  be  explained 
to  her  what  kind  of  tone  she  will  be  enabled 
to  produce  by  this  position.  She  should  be 
shown  that  a  wrong  position  and  faulty  fin- 
gering make  a  tone  harsh  and  rough,  and  a 
succession  of    tones    spasmodic    and    jolting. 

38 


For  My  Musicatl  Friend 

Her  ear  will  then  be  trained  to  recognize  a 
beautiful  tone,  and  she  will  become  more  and 
more  interested  in  trying  to  produce  it. 

Even  technical  exercises  will  not  seem  dreary 
when  applied  to  so  noble  a  purpose.  The 
pupil  should  also  be  taught  to  observe  the 
modifications  of  tone  caused  by  the  prescribed 
touches,  such  as  legato,  staccato,  etc.,  as  well 
as  to  note  the  differences  in  intervals.  When 
she  reaches  the  scales,  she  will  find  abundant 
sources  of  interest.  She  should  heed  their 
construction,  and  come  to  be  so  sure  of  the 
relative  positions  of  tones  and  half  tones  that 
she  can  readily  build  for  herself,  on  any  given 
key,  major,  minor  or  chromatic  scale.  During 
her  scale  practise  she  may  become  somewhat 
at  home  with  rhythms  by  running  the  scales 
up  and  down  the  keyboard,  with  varied 
rhythmic  treatment,  and  according  to  various 
metres,  or  movements.  The  same  plan  may  be 
advantageously  pursued  with  chords  and 
broken  chords,  or  arpeggios. 

By  the  time  pieces  are  attacked  a  pupil  rightly 
disciplined  will  begin  to  be  familiar  with  the 
39 


The  Pia-no  a^rvd  0\ir  Girls 

tone-language,  and  if  reasonable  precautions' 
be  taken  to  secure  good  air  and  light,  there  is 
no  more  reason  why  she  should  injure  her 
eyesight  in  reading  notes  than  in  reading 
words.  There  is  always  more  or  less  strain 
to  the  eyes  in  attempting  to  read  an  unfamiliar 
language.  A  proper  study  of  music  will  make 
it  a  familiar  one. 

A  child  should  not  be  expected  to  sit  at 
the  piano  more  than  fifteen  minutes  at  a  time, 
and  due  provisions  should  be  made  for  sup- 
porting the  feet.  In  a  very  young  child  this 
time  is  sufficient  for  the  day.  As  the  interest 
deepens  and  the  strength  increases  the  period 
may  be  repeated,  first  once,  later  two,  three 
or  four  times  daily.  At  no  time  should  a 
young  girl  sit  at  the  piano  longer  that  an  hour 
at  a  time,  indeed,  until  well-grown,  not  more 
than  half  an  hour. 

With  suitable  training  more  musicianly 
feeling  and  understanding  may  be  aroused, 
even  in  a  pupil  whose  time  at  the  instrument 
is  very  limited,  than  could  possibly  result  from 
hours  of  aimless  practise  while  the  mind  wan- 

40 


For  My  M\isica.l  Friend 

ders  all  over  the  universe.  Unless  a  young  wo- 
man purposes  to  make  music  her  chief  occu- 
pation, either  as  a  public  profession  or  as  a 
home  life-employment,  two  hours  daily  is 
ample  to  devote  to  the  piano.  She  may  spend 
as  much  time  in  addition  to  this  as  she  pleases, 
away  from  her  instrument,  in  studying  theory, 
learning  to  call  up  mental  tone-images  from 
the  printed  page  of  notes,  memorizing  and  writ- 
ing music,  and  reading  works  on  the  history 
and  philosophy  of  music.  The  more  she  oc- 
cupies herself  in  this  way,  the  better  it  is  for 
her  musical  growth  and  general  culture. 

Properly  used  the  piano  is  a  magnificent 
means  of  physical,  intellectual  and  spiritual 
development.  It  is  capable  of  bringing  into 
play  all  the  faculties  at  one  and  the  same 
time.  A  girl  whose  emotions  are  readily 
stirred  should  be  balanced  and  steadied  by 
abundant  drill  in  the  noblest  intellectual  music. 
One  of  a  more  phlegmatic  temperament  might 
be  quickened  by  wholesome  supplies  of  a  more 
emotional  character. 

Care  should  be  taken  to  have  both  hands 
41 


The  PiaLfio  and  Our  Girls 

trained  alike.  This  will  tend  to  equalize  the 
circulation,  and  the  demands  on  the  nerve  and 
brain  centres.  It  is  an  established  fact  that 
the  arteries  arising  from  the  aorta  carry  the 
blood  in  an  appreciably  shorter  course  and  in 
less  time  to  the  left  hemisphere  of  the  brain  than 
to  the  right.  Consequently  the  nutrition  of  the 
former  is  more  abundant,  the  vitality  more 
active  than  the  latter,  and  the  right  side  of  the 
body,  which  the  left  brain  controls,  is  more 
readily  responsive  on  account  of  its  greater 
nervous  stimulus.  Much  good  may  be  ac- 
complished by  increasing  the  vigor  of  the  right 
side  of  the  brain  through  the  use  of  the  left 
hand. 

In  addition  to  air  and  exercise  there  is  some- 
thing essential  to  the  student  which  the  au- 
thorities quoted  in  the  beginning  of  this  essay 
have  overlooked.  That  is  good,  wholesome 
food.  The  history  of  our  girls  who  go  abroad 
to  study  music  proves  the  lack  of  nutritious 
food  to  be  one  of  the  prime  causes  of  the 
wrecked  health  with  which  they  so  often  re- 
turn. To  eke  out  her  insufficient  funds  for 
42 


For  My  MusiceLl  Friend 

the  course,  so  apt  to  be  of  necessity  longer 
than  the  too  often  poorly  prepared  American 
student  had  expected,  a  girl  will  settle  in  some 
cheap  boarding-house,  and  becoming  dis- 
gusted with  the  food,  accustom  her  stomach  to 
scanty  supplies.  Invalidism  is  the  inevitable 
result. 

Plutarch  says  there  is  a  sordidness  scholars 
ought  to  avoid,  and  that  is  one  that  forces 
them  to  neglect  their  bodies,  denying  these  a 
supply  when  their  work  is  done.  He  also 
utters  an  earnest  plea  for  suitable  rest  and 
relaxation,  and  reminds  his  reader  how  Plato 
urges  that  the  mind  and  the  body  be  driven 
together  like  a  pair  of  horses. 

No  one  better  than  the  girl  who  plays  the 
piano  has  the  opportunity  to  employ  the  mind 
and  body  on  equal  terms.  Truly  she  should 
become  a  well-balanced,  well-ordered  indi- 
vidual. 


43 


Ill 

R.aLtioi\aLl  Methods  of  M\isic 
St\idy 

Whatever  is  desirable  and  honorable  to 
know  is  desirable  and  honorable  to  know  as 
intelligently  as  possible.  Music  when  intelli- 
gently known  is  capable  of  becoming  so  im- 
portant a  factor  in  human  culture  that  proper 
training  in  its  fundamental  principles  should 
be  deemed  essential  to  a  well-rounded  educa- 
tion. 

One  of  the  hopeful  signs  of  the  times  is  the 
tendency  to  introduce  musical  departments  into 
our  public  institutions  of  learning.  Tradi- 
tional methods  of  musical  instruction  need 
comparison  with  the  methods  applied  to  other 
branches  of  learning,  from  the  kindergarten 
courses  of  those  of  the  university.  Only  when 
placed  on  a  rational,  scientific  basis  can  music 
study  dispense  its  highest  blessings. 

45 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

A  student  of  English  literature  is  expected 
to  analyze  and  criticise  the  lesson  assigned  to 
him,  and  to  express,  both  in  spoken  and  in 
written  words,  the  ideas  therefrom  conveyed 
to  him.  He  would  be  thought  to  have  made 
poor  use  of  his  opportunities  if,  at  the  end  of 
his  course,  he  could  simply  make  brilliant  reci- 
tations of  a  few  literary  compositions,  without 
the  least  comprehension  of  their  meaning  and 
without  being  so  equipped  intellectually  that 
he  could  read  and  advance  further  by  his  own 
unaided  efforts.  There  are  scores  of  music- 
students,  however,  who,  after  years  of  labor, 
under  teachers  of  standing,  are  unable  to 
analyze  a  single  page  of  music,  and  are  power- 
less to  advance  beyond  the  work  in  which  they 
have  been  drilled,  frequently  even  to  keep  up 
what  they  have  acquired,  after  ceasing  to  take 
lessons.  It  seems  most  remarkable  that  this 
does  not  excite  more  widespread  comment  and 
dissatisfaction. 

Striking  progress  has  been  made  of  late  in 
methods  of  technical  training,  especially  in  in- 
strumental music ;  but  unfortunately  technique 

46 


R.atioi\aLl  Methods  of  Music  Study 

is  the  one  only  goal  of  too  many  pupils  and 
teachers,  brilliant  performances  the  one  de- 
mand of  too  many  parents  and  listeners. 
Technique  is  but  a  means  to  an  end.  It  is 
a  most  admirable  servant,  but  a  sorry  object 
of  worship.  Without  it  success  is  impossible, 
for  it  is  the  vehicle  in  which  to  convey  the 
treasures  of  art  to  those  capable  of  receiving 
them.  One's  own  soul  may  be  brimming  over 
with  beautiful  thoughts,  poetic  imagery  and 
exalted  emotions,  yet  one  cannot  express  these 
in  tones,  otherwise  than  as  a  bungler,  if  one's 
fingers  or  voice  be  not  adequately  trained. 

Johann  Sebastian  Bach's  son,  Philipp  Eman- 
uel Bach,  whose  piano-forte  system,  based  on 
the  methods  of  his  great  father,  gave  a  new 
direction  to  the  art  of  piano  playing,  in  denot- 
ing the  requisites  of  an  artistic  performer,  was 
wont  to  point  to  his  head,  as  the  seat  of  under- 
standing, to  his  heart  as  symbolic  of  sympathy, 
and  to  the  tips  of  his  fingers  as  the  represen- 
tatives of  technical  skill.  Head,  heart  and 
physical  forces  combined,  intellect,  emotion 
and  technical  skill,  all  well  developed,  are 
47 


For  My  Mxisicatl  Friend. 

needed  to  make  the  musician.  Among  the 
many  engaged  in  teaching  music  there  have 
always  been  a  few  who  have  reaHzed  this,  and 
among  these  few  have  been  some  rare  souls 
who  have  had  the  courage  to  put  their  realiza- 
tion into  practise.  The  good  they  have  ac- 
complished in  ushering  in  the  right  uses  of 
music  is  inestimable,  and  it  is  most  encour- 
aging to  know  that  their  number  is  increasing. 
Not  until  music  is  generally  conceded  to  be 
an  ennobling  social  force  and  a  universal  lan- 
guage— the  language  of  humanity's  higher 
nature — will  rational  methods  of  music  study 
be  widely  adopted.  According  to  such 
methods  a  musical  education  should  be  similar 
to  a  well-disciplined  person,  and  each  difficulty 
encountered  should  be  conquered  before  a  new 
one  is  attacked.  Moreover,  no  difficulty  should 
be  offered  a  pupil  at  any  stage  of  development  as 
a  soulless  difficulty.  Every  figure,  every  form, 
every  group  of  notes  used  in  practise  should 
be  furnished  with  some  sort  of  mental  drapery, 
or  content,  suitable  to  quicken  the  musical  sen- 
sibilities. In  piano  work,  for  instance,  they 
48 


ANTON    RUBINSTEIN 


Rationa.!  Methods  of  Music  Study 

should  not  be  used  solely  to  limber  up  the  fin- 
gers, but  should  serve  to  store  the  mind  with 
the  tone-forms  by  which  musical  ideas  are  ex- 
pressed. The  youngest  child  that  is  started 
on  a  musical  education  will  quickly  overcome 
any  distaste  it  may  at  first  feel  to  preliminary 
exercises  if  taught  to  regard  these  as  detached 
fragments  of  countless  beautiful  compositions 
that  may  be  acquired  through  them. 

Advanced  studies  in  theory,  form  and  com- 
position are  for  the  mature  mind,  but  the  rudi- 
ments of  harmony — the  A  B  C  of  music — 
should  be  taught  the  beginner.  At  the  outset 
technical  exercises  should  be  used  to  cultivate 
the  tone  sense  and  the  rhythmic  sense,  as  well 
as  to  attain  correct  mechanism.  Every  one 
who  deals  with  tones  should  be  able  to  hear 
them,  think  them  and  write  them.  There  are 
many  performers  of  intricate  compositions  who 
cannot  do  this,  and  who  have  consequently  de- 
rived none  of  the  benefits  from  their  labors 
that  accrue  from  a  musical  education  builded 
on  a  sure  foundation. 

It  will  greatly  facilitate  both  reading  and 
49 


For  My  MxisicaL.!  Friend 

memorizing  music  if  the  pupil  from  the  start 
be  led  to  recognize  the  sound  and  value  of 
every  interval  and  form  he  encounters.  Inter- 
vals, chords,  scales,  etc.,  should  be  played  or 
sung  to  him,  and  his  understanding  should  be 
continually  tested  by  calling  on  him  to  distin- 
guish them  one  from  the  other.  He  should 
also  be  drilled  in  musical  dictation  by  being 
obliged  to  write  down  passages  of  music  played 
or  sung  to  him  in  groups  of  from  four  to  eight 
measures. 

Writing  music  from  memory  is  a  vital  aid 
in  developing  the  musical  intelligence.  When 
begun  in  the  early  stages  of  progress  it  will 
not  be  found  unduly  troublesome.  The  pupil 
who  can  properly  grasp  his  musical  materials 
should  be  able  to  transpose  all  his  exercises 
and  studies  from  one  key  to  another  and  write 
them  down  from  memory  in  their  own  or  any 
other  key.  This  exercise  may  be  the  means  of 
leading  to  the  expression  in  tones  of  some 
original  thought.  Robert  Schumann,  in  his 
"Rules  for  Young  Musicians,"  says : 


50 


Rattional  Methods  of  Music  Study 

"If  you  can  find  out  little  melodies  for  your- 
self on  the  piano,  it  is  all  very  well.  But  if 
they  come  themselves  when  you  are  not  at 
the  instrument,  then  you  have  still  greater  rea- 
son to  rejoice,  for  then  the  inner  sense  of  music 
is  astir  in  you.  The  fingers  must  do  what 
the  head  wills,  not  vice  versa.  If  Heaven  has 
bestowed  on  you  a  lively  imagination,  you  will 
often  sit  in  solitary  hours  spellbound  to  your 
piano,  seeking  expression  for  your  inmost  soul 
in  harmonies.  Beware,  however,  of  abandon- 
ing yourself  too  often  to  a  talent  which  may 
tempt  you  to  waste  time  and  power  on  phan- 
toms. Mastery  of  form,  the  power  of  clearly 
moulding  your  productions,  you  will  gain 
through  the  sure  token  of  writing.  Write, 
then,  more  than  you  improvise." 

Too  much  attention  cannot  be  paid  to  sight- 
reading.  A  well-schooled  musician  should  be 
able  to  read  and  comprehend  notes  from  the 
printed,  or  written  page  without  the  medium  of 
voice  or  instrument,  precisely  as  a  person 
skilled  in  other  branches  can  read  from  a  page 
51 


For  My  Musicak.!  Friend 

of  words.  To  do  so  satisfactorily,  to  be  able 
to  call  up  a  distinct  mental  image  of  tonal  forms 
and  their  significance,  requires  splendidly  de- 
veloped faculties  and  superior  power  of  mental 
concentration.  Whoever  can  read  notes  in  this 
way  will  find  no  difficulty  in  interpreting  them 
with  the  voice,  or  the  instrument  he  has  learned 
to  command. 

Part-singing,  without  the  support  of  an  in- 
strument, makes  excellent  sight-reading  for  two 
or  more  voices.  It  will  help  a  piano  player 
gain  power  of  expression  and  familiarity  with 
tone  relations.  The  reading  of  good  four- 
hand  music,  or  of  the  piano  part  in  well  written 
concerted  music,  with  other  instruments,  or 
playing  accompaniments,  affords  admirable 
practice  for  the  pianist.  Performers  on  other 
instruments  are  apt  to  have  their  full  share  of 
this  kind  of  work. 

In  order  to  profit  by  and  enjoy  music  to  the 
utmost  extent,  it  must  be  in  your  head  and  in 
your  heart,  as  well  as  in  your  fingers,  or  in 
your  voice.  If  this  be  so  you  will  readily  com- 
mit to  memory  everything  you  study,  thus  mak- 

52 


Rettional  Methods  of  Music  Study 

ing  it  part  and  parcel  of  yourself.  Memory 
is  strengthened  by  use.  Youth  is  the  time  to 
begin  its  exercise,  but  it  will  serve  you  faith- 
fully throughout  life  so  long  as  health  and 
strength  endure,  if  you  but  deal  wisely  with  it. 

Some  acquaintance  with  the  history  of  music 
is  absolutely  necessary  to  an  intelligent  com- 
prehension of  the  divine  art.  Unless  we  know 
how  music  came  to  be  what  it  is,  through  what 
changes  and  vicissitudes  it  has  passed,  amid 
what  gigantic  efforts  its  pathway  has  been 
hewn,  we  can  attain  no  broad  musicianship. 
To  gain  however  feeble  a  realization  of  its 
origin,  to  learn  something  of  the  rise  and 
growth  of  tonal  forms,  to  become  familiar  with 
the  environments  that  influenced  the  shaping 
of  the  masterpieces  of  musical  composition, 
tends  to  enlarge  the  horizon  of  the  student, 
and  to  cast  radiant  light  on  the  worth  of  man's 
inner  consciousness  of  an  ideal  realm. 

That  musical  education  is  on  a  false  basis 

which  does  not  aim  at  the  higher  culture  of  all 

our  faculties.     To  rest  on  mere  mechanism  in 

music  is  disastrous  to  the  mind,  for  it  dulls 

53 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

the  finer  sensibilities  which  music  properly  em- 
ployed has  the  power  to  render  more  keen. 
Earnest,  faithful  music  study  is  calculated  to 
bring  into  prominence  that  virtue,  or  faculty, 
of  which  Ruskin  tells,  which  has  ever  been  rec- 
ognized as  the  appointed  ruler  and  guide  of 
every  method  of  labor,  or  passion  of  the  soul. 

Not  every  one  that  is  born  into  the  world  can 
be  a  genius,  but  music  is  not  meant  for  genius 
alone.  The  average  human  being  is  endowed 
with  capabilities  which,  if  suitably  directed,  will 
lead  him  to  profit  by  the  discipline,  culture  and 
exquisite  delight  which  music  affords.  Those 
who  are  unable  to  devote  much  time  or  effort 
to  the  study  may  at  least  have  instilled  into 
them  those  prime  elements  which  will  enable 
them  to  appreciate  true  musical  art  when 
brought  into  contact  with  it.  In  this  way  we 
can  learn  how  to  listen  to  music.  This  is  the 
work  we  may  hope  some  day  to  have  our  public 
schools  accomplish. 

It  is  a  true  saying  that  art  is  only  wise  when 
it  is  unselfish.  Musical  art  becomes  wise  and 
unselfish  when  it  ceases  to  be  a  mere  means  of 
54 


R^aLtional  Methods  of  Music  Study 

idle  amusement,  display  or  money-getting  for 
the  few,  and  becomes  a  source  of  character- 
building,  soul-development  and  pure  enjoy- 
ment for  the  many. 

The  power  of  music  is  inexhaustible.  Neither 
head  nor  heart  have  yet  fathomed  its  depths  or 
soared  to  its  utmost  heights.  Speaking  to 
every  heart,  this  wonderful  friend  of  mankind 
speaks  in  harmony  with  the  sentiments  of  each. 
Appealing  to  every  intellect  it  teaches  fully  as 
much  as  each  may  grasp.  We  may  well  de- 
clare with  Schopenhauer  that  music  is  the 
image  of  the  world.  It  does  not  depict  phe- 
nomena, but  the  inner  being,  the  essence  of 
phenomena,  the  content  of  the  soul. 


55 


IV 

TKe  Technique  ih^i  End\ires 

Notwithstanding  the  improved  methods 
of  instruction  in  piano-forte  playing  that  have 
come  to  the  front  in  these  our  modern  times, 
few  of  the  American  women  who  freely  devote 
time,  energy,  and  money  to  this  line  of  study, 
retain  their  hold  on  their  chosen  art  in  spirit 
and  technique  and  facility  on  to  middle  life. 
This  is  the  subject  of  much  comment,  but  can 
perhaps  be  explained  by  a  little  inquiry  into 
the  conditions  that  go  to  develop  the  musician 
and  the  performer.  Observe  that  the  musician 
takes  precedence  of  the  performer;  and  this 
is  as  it  should  be  if  the  efforts  of  the  latter  are 
to  attain  dignity,  worth,  and  durability. 

The  piano  is  often  termed  a  cold,  mechanical 
instrument ;  but  whatever  its  actual  deficiencies 
may  be,  it  is  capable  of  admitting  its  student 

57 


For  My  MxisicaLl  Friend 

to  a  wider  acquaintance  with  musical  art  and 
science  than  any  other  single  instrument. 
Even  while  wrestling  with  the  finger  exercises, 
scales,  arpeggios,  and  the  various  musical  forms 
that  constitute  a  pianist's  stock  resource,  cor- 
rect habits  of  musical  thought  may  be  induced, 
as  well  as  correct  technical  habits.  The 
pianist's  education  is  on  a  false  basis,  that  may 
at  any  moment  give  way  beneath  the  stress  of 
time  and  events,  unless  its  trend  be  toward  the 
higher  culture  of  all  the  faculties.  Moreover, 
to  attain  an  intelligent  basis  of  musical  discrimi- 
nation, with  a  realization  of  the  inherent  wealth 
of  each  tone  or  group  of  tones  employed  in 
practice,  the  technique  of  the  spirit  must  domi- 
nate the  technique  of  the  instrument. 

In  other  words,  if  a  pianist's  mechanism  be 
not  subservient  to  a  soulful  discriminating  in- 
telligence behind  it,  a  transitory  superficial  ex- 
istence is  all  that  can  be  expected  for  it.  When 
properly  acquired,  and  viewed  as  a  means  to 
an  end,  that  end  being  to  give  expression  to 
the  musical  thought  that  holds  sway  in  the 
inner  sanctuary  of  the  soul,  it  need  only  be 
58 


The  Technique  thatt  Endures 

parted  with  because  of  the  infirmities  of  old 
age  or  other  unavoidable  physical  disabilities. 
Circumstances  and  conditions  may  necessitate 
laying  it  temporarily  aside,  but  if  builded  on  a 
true  foundation  control  can  readily  be  regained 
over  it.  Where  there  is  love,  enthusiasm,  and 
understanding,  material  obstacles  are  apt  to  be 
conquered,  or  at  least  held  long  in  abeyance. 

"Difficulties  develop  brain  matter,"  says 
Emerson,  and  certainly  the  difficulties  grappled 
with  by  the  earnest  musician  are  calculated  to 
further  inner  growth.  A  true  musical  educa- 
tion demands  so  much  devotion  and  loyalty, 
so  much  patience,  and  such  complete  self-abne- 
gation, it  cannot  fail  to  hav6  a  refining, 
strengthening,  broadening  influence  on  the  en- 
tire character.  It  should  teach  the  student  how 
to  hear  tones,  both  with  the  outer  and  the  inner 
ear.  It  should  make  clear  the  proper  relation- 
ship of  these,  and  the  natural  laws  by  which 
they  repel  and  attract  each  other.  It  should 
show  how  to  grasp  the  ideas  controlling  the 
series  and  combinations  of  tones  and  phrases 
thus  mentally  constructed.     Its  result  should 

59 


For  My  Musica.1  Friend 

be  right  tone-thinking,  tone-feeling,  tone-com- 
prehension, and  tone-production.  It  must  in- 
sensibly develop  those  musical  principles  in- 
herent in  every  human  breast. 

We  can  scarcely  conceive  of  a  human  being 
devoid  of  some  innate  germ  of  musical  possi- 
bilities, for  music  is  the  noblest  voice  of  the 
soul.  There  are,  however,  various  phases  and 
degrees  of  musical  gifts.  An  individual  may 
be  endowed  with  an  ear  for  music  so  keen  that 
it  is  disturbed  by  the  slightest  impurity  of  in- 
tonation, yet  may  be  almost  wholly  lacking  in 
appreciation  of  rhythm,  that  important  factor 
in  human  action.  Another  may  have  an  acute 
sense  of  rhythm,  yet  be  peculiarly  dull  to  tonal 
effects.  Still  another  may  possess  both  a  fine 
ear  and  an  acute  sense  of  rhythm,  yet  lack 
refinement  of  taste. 

The  ear  may  be  sharpened,  the  sense  of 
rhythm  stimulated,  the  taste  refined,  by  culti- 
vation. It  is  true  this  cannot  endow  a  person 
with  that  wonderful  something  which  never  has 
been  and  never  will  be  fully  ex- 
plained, which    is    the  birthright    of    certain 

60 


The  Technique  tha^t  Ei\d\ires 

fortunate  ones,  which  enables  them  to  ap- 
propriate, to  mark,  learn,  and  inwardly  digest, 
whatever  of  musical  opportunity  may  fall  to 
their  lot,  and  which  breathes  the  warm  breath 
of  life  even  into  a  crude  musical  performance. 
When  this  mysterious  something  exists  to  a 
large  degree  nothing  can  wholly  crush  it;  but 
it,  as  well  as  other  germs  of  musical  talent, 
may  be,  in  a  measure,  either  invigorated  or 
enfeebled  by  education. 

The  enfeebling  process  is  not  infrequently 
undergone  during  the  period  of  technical  train- 
ing. A  pupil  who  is  allowed  to  pass  hours  in 
gaining  facility,  elasticity,  and  vigor  of  touch 
and  technique,  while  the  mind  wanders  at  will, 
or  is  fixed  on  some  totally  irrelevant  subject, 
is  very  apt  to  have  musical  feeling  stifled; 
whereas  this  may  be  quickened  if  from  the  outset 
mind,  emotions,  and  muscles  be  equally  and 
adequately  addressed. 

Actual  delight  may  be  experienced  in  the 
earliest  attempts  at  piano  playing  if  the  under- 
lying principles  of  each  tone  and  phrase  at- 
tacked be  made  clear.     Whatever  help  may  be 

61 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

derived  from  certain  modern  mechanical  aids 
to  technical  training,  there  can  be  no  question 
of  the  fact  that  the  player  who  is  familiar  with 
the  quality  of  tone  produced  by  each  kind  of 
touch  can  best  determine  the  correct  movement 
of  fingers,  hands,  wrists,  and  arms.  If  a  pupil 
were  but  taught  to  master  each  particular  step 
taken  in  touch,  technique,  and  spiritual  compre- 
hension before  venturing  on  any  new  step,  that 
too  often  cruelly  martyred  instrument,  the 
piano,  would  cease  to  torture  the  listener's  ear 
and  smother  the  vital  spark  of  musical  flame 
in  the  performer's  soul. 

The  musical  guide  of  the  author's  own 
youth,  Carl  Gaertner,  of  Philadelphia,  whose 
life  work  has  been  to  promote  a  higher  musical 
education,  has  always  declared  the  mind  to  be 
more  at  fault  than  the  muscles  when  he  heard 
a  pupil  perform  in  a  lame,  halting  fashion  pas- 
sages similar  to  models  already  conquered  in 
technical  exercises.  Those  who  have  studied 
under  his  direction  have  been  obliged  to  de- 
vote consideraljle  time  to  each  musical  compo- 
sition away  from  the  instrument,  reading  the 

62 


The  Technique  that  Endures 

pages  of  notes  as  we  read  the  pages  of  words 
in  a  printed  book,  analyzing  every  phrase, 
chord,  and  combination,  until  the  entire  work, 
with  its  melody,  harmony,  and  rhythm,  was 
mentally  translated  into  tones,  and  its  com- 
poser's intention  fully  grasped.  When  a  com- 
position becomes  stamped  in  this  way  on  the 
musical  centres  of  intelligence,  skilled  fingers 
can  readily  be  brought  to  reproduce  the  per- 
formance that  has  already  been  mentally  heard. 
The  name  is  legion  of  the  young  women 
who  bring  from  their  course  of  musical  studies 
at  home  or  abroad  a  certain  glamour  of  artistic 
skill  and  enthusiasm,  but  who  soon  let  go  their 
tenure  on  what  they  have  acquired,  because, 
as  they  say,  there  is  no  musical  atmosphere  in 
the  regions  where  their  lot  falls.  In  many  such 
cases  music  has  been  viewed  as  a  means  of  dis- 
play, and  becomes  valueless  when  the  oppor- 
tunity for  this  ceases.  Often,  too,  the  power 
of  artistic  imitation  has  been  cultivated,  rather 
than  that  of  artistic  interpretation,  and  fades 
away  when  there  is  no  longer  anything  to 
imitate. 

63 


For  My  MusicaLl  Friend 

Those  who  study  music  on  an  intelligent 
basis  of  discrimination,  whether  with  the  aid  of 
the  piano-forte,  the  human  voice,  or  any  other 
instrument,  will  be  able  to  create  their  own 
musical  atmosphere,  and  not  be  wholly  depend- 
ent on  their  environments.  If  public  artists, 
they  will  hold  on  a  high  level  the  standard  of 
their  art;  if  teachers,  they  will  sow  good  seed, 
and  will  not  degenerate  into  soulless  machines ; 
while,  if  not  employing  music  as  a  means  of 
livelihood,  they  will  still  cling  to  it  through  life 
as  a  continual  source  of  joy,  consolation,  ele- 
vation, and  refinement. 

Music  is  a  language,  tone  its  foundation  and 
spiritual  part.  They  who  would  attain  its  true 
accent,  who  would  possess  a  beautiful,  soulful 
tone,  must  unite  in  perfect  harmony,  theory 
and  practice,  soul  and  body.  Herbert  Spencer 
places  it  highest  in  the  hierarchy  of  the  arts. 
Certainly  no  art  can  wield  a  mightier  influence 
than  music,  no  one  study  require  greater  powers 
of  mental  concentration. 

The  pianist  whose  studies  lead  to  lasting  at- 
tainments is  one  who  is  thoroughly  permeated 

64 


The  Technique  that  Endures 

with  the  divine  art,  and  who  has  gained  a 
mechanism  that  acts  in  obedience  to  the  inner 
voice.  When  an  individual  comprehends  and 
can  produce  tone  in  its  infinite  varieties,  music 
and  its  expression  have  become  part  and  parcel 
of  his  being.  A  true  musical  education,  with 
its  blended  mental  and  physical  discipline,  must 
unquestionably  tend  to  make  a  genial,  well- 
balanced  nature.  It  must  prove  a  solace  in 
hours  of  loneliness,  a  vent  in  moments  of  joy, 
of  exultation,  and  of  grief.  It  demands  that 
its  devotee  appropriate  the  higher  things  of  life. 
It  uplifts  the  soul  on  its  own  ethereal  wings 
into  the  highest  communion  with  the  Infinite, 
the  Eternal. 

To  some  it  is  given  in  a  greater  degree  than 
to  others  to  realize  all  this.  Nevertheless, 
every  child  can  be  taught  to  have  and  to  hold 
some  of  the  blessings  music  has  to  offer. 


65 


Sigt-R.eading  in  Mvisic 

What  a  vast  deal  of  comment  and  query 
would  be  aroused  in  an  enlightened  community 
by  a  person  of  fair  intelligence  who  was  known 
to  have  devoted  several  hours  each  day,  under 
the  guidance  of  an  accredited  teacher,  to  the 
study  of  a  familiar  language,  ::nd  at  the  end 
of  seven  or  eight  years  could  not  read  its  sim- 
plest page  without  stumbling  over  words  and 
sentences  until  they  were  learned  by  rote !  Yet 
this  is  what  is  continually  witnessed  unques- 
tioned in  the  study  of  music. 

The  fact  is,  musical  education,  from  a 
rational  standpoint,  has  sadly  lagged  behind 
in  the  march  of  progress.  It  is  now  high  time 
to  apply  to  it  the  ad'/anced  pedagogic  methods 
adopted  by  teachers  of  other  branches,  and  to 

67 


For  My  Mvisica.!  Friend 

bring  common-sense  to  bear  on  the  music  les- 
son. Whatever  may  be  the  advantages  of  the 
favored  few,  the  majority  of  our  music  stu- 
dents, at  least,  do  not  realize  that  the  language 
of  tones  is  one  that  can  make  its  appeal  to  the 
mind  through  the  medium  of  both  eye  and  ear 
as  rapidly  and  as  certainly  as  does  the  English 
language  to  the  ordinary  scholar  in  our  public 
schools. 

Much  is  being  written  and  said  to-day  about 
the  higher  education  in  music.  The  air  is  full 
of  ideas  and  suggestions  bearing  on  this,  and 
certain  faithful  laborers  in  the  field  are  already 
putting  them  successfully  into  practice.  Never- 
theless, society  at  large  continues  to  treat  music 
as  an  idle  accomplishment,  a  means  of  display, 
and  to  cherish  a  lamentable  disregard  of  the 
wisdom  of  basing  its  study  on  fundamental 
principles. 

It  is  a  miserable  piece  of  business  to  struggle 
with  the  works  of  the  tone-masters,  as  our 
piano  students,  for  instance,  so  frequently  do, 
before  the  musical  alphabet  is  properly  learned, 
and  spelling,  phrasing,  pronunciation,  form, 
68 


Sight-Reading  in  Music 

and  meaning  conquered.  In  this  day  of  gen- 
eral culture,  when  there  is  so  marked  a  ten- 
dency to  reckon  everything  at  its  proper  valua- 
tion, the  eyes  of  the  public  must  soon  become 
fully  opened  to  the  reckless  dissipation  of 
force,  time,  and  means  that  has  been, 
and  to  a  large  extent  is  still,  permitted  in  study- 
ing music. 

To  read  music  understandingly  at  sight  re- 
quires a  greater  degree  of  mental  concentra- 
tion than  the  uninitiated  can  well  comprehend, 
and  concentration  of  well-trained  faculties. 
Any  one  who  would  read  notes  readily  must 
have  an  accurate  conception  of  tones  before 
they  are  produced.  If  the  intellectual  powers 
be  broadened  and  strengthened,  the  musical  per- 
ceptions sharpened  and  intensified,  and  the  men- 
tal instrument  skillfully  exercised,  there  will  be 
no  trouble  in  promptly  grasping  the  signifi- 
cance of  a  mass  of  musical  sounds,  both  as  a 
concrete  whole  and  in  its  individual  parts. 

In  order  to  read  music  properly,  then,  it  must 
be  studied  properly.  From  the  outset  the  stu- 
dent should  be  taught  to  call  up  an  exact  men- 
69 


For  My  Musica.!  Friend 

tal  image  of  the  intervals,  tones,  chords,  metre, 
rhythm,  movement,  etc.,  represented  by  the 
notes  and  signs  on  a  page  of  music.  First, 
single  tones  and  intervals  should  be  mastered, 
then  chords  and  their  relations  conquered. 
Thus  will  be  gained  that  tliorough  acquaintance 
with  the  most  complicated  melodic  and  har- 
monic combinations  and  progressions  that 
makes  the  true  musician. 

There  is  no  other  way  of  avoiding  those 
painful  and  tiresome  repetitions  which  are  the 
stumbling-blocks  of  any  one  who  is  compelled 
to  play  a  musical  composition  over  many  times 
on  an  instrument  before  knowing  how  it  will 
sound.  It  is  the  only  way  that  leads  to  com- 
plete satisfaction  in  music.  By  pursuing  it  the 
piano  student  will  find  that  notes  may  become 
a  living  reality  while  technical  skill  is  being 
gained,  and  it  will  be  found  as  simple  a  matter 
to  write  out  as  to  play  or  sing  music  that  has 
entered  the  inner  consciousness. 

The  musical  course,  like  life,  should  be  one 
long  preparation  from  beginning  to  end.  Each 
step  should  be  firmlv  planted  before  the  next 
70 


Sight-R.eading  in  Music 

is  ventured,  each  stage  made  to  serve  as  a  sure 
foundation  for  the  next.  This  careful,  steady- 
progression  provides  the  only  royal  road  to 
musical  knowledge.  It  is  a  straight,  narrow 
road  which  admits  of  no  digressions,  but  it 
leads  the  tried  and  true  securely  to  the  goal. 
One  who  treads  it  will  be  compelled  to  make 
haste  slowly,  but  he  is  never  obliged  to  waste 
time  and  vitality  in  combating  complex  diffi- 
culties ;  for  each  difficulty  is  encountered  and 
conquered  singly  and  in  regular  rotation. 
Such  a  one  will  be  musicianly  to  the  core,  and 
would  be  no  more  likely  to  interrupt  the  flow 
of  ideas  by  halting  and  hesitating  in  reading  a 
musical  work  than  a  well-educated  person 
would  be  to  do  the  same  in  reading  works  in 
any  familiar  language. 

It  is  not  meant  to  assert  that  a  great  com- 
position may  be  interpreted  at  sight  with  the 
fulness  of  comprehension  that  comes  after  one 
has  reflected  one's  self  into  harmony  with  the 
composer's  intention.  We  do  not  exhaust,  or 
even  conceive,  the  complete  beauty  of  a  poem 
on  first  acquaintance,  and  cannot  expect  to  do 
7\ 


For  My  Mvisical  Friend 

so  with  other  works  of  art.  What  is  stoutly 
maintained  is  that  any  person  of  average 
capacity,  if  adequately  instructed,  will  be  able 
to  translate  notes  into  tones  as  they  are  men- 
tally read,  and  to  express  them  promptly  and 
intelligently  on  the  instrument  that  is  his  or 
her  medium  of  expression. 

In  France  the  basis  of  all  musical  develop- 
ment is  Solfege,  which  is  harmony-principle 
and  music-reading  combined.  It  is  taught  in 
every  school,  and  no  one  is  admitted  to  the 
vocal  and  instrumental  classes  of  the  Paris 
Conservatoire  without  a  Solfege  medal.  By 
means  of  it,  if  you  go  to  study  music  in  Paris, 
you  will  find  that  your  butcher  and  baker  and 
candlestick-maker  can  read  notes  as  well  as  you 
can — better,  if  you  take  with  you  only  a  flimsily 
constructed,  amateurish,  fashionable  musical 
education.  It  embraces  the  study  of  all  keys, 
transpositions,  reading  by  syllable,  all  kinds  of 
sight-reading,  musical  dictation,  speed,  ac- 
curacy, and  general  theory  of  music. 

Visitors  of  children's  Solfege  classes  in  Paris 
tell  of  little  folk,  from  eight  to  twelve  years  of 

72 


Sight-ReeLding  in  Music 

age,  who  can  read  readily  by  syllables,  spoken 
or  sung,  a  complicated  page  of  music,  observ- 
ing rests,  ties,  changes  in  rhythm  or  key,  acci- 
dentals, syncopations,  grace  notes,  trills,  with 
every  possible  catch  for  eye  and  ear,  and  of 
busy  little  fingers  writing  down  correctly  in  the 
dictation-books  music  that  is  played  and  sung 
to  them  in  passages  of  eight  measures  at  a  time. 
The  head  of  the  Solfege  department  at  the 
Paris  Conservatoire  states  that  in  seven  years' 
experience  not  one  pupil  has  been  found  who 
could  not  be  brought  to  this  degree  of  musical 
mechanism.  Some  learn  more  quickly  than 
others,  but  all  can  learn.  It  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  Paris  can  boast  a  discriminating 
musical  public. 

If  the  improved  methods  of  music  instruc- 
tion that  have  been  introduced  into  many  of 
our  American  public  schools  be  persevered  in 
and  made  general,  we  too  will  in  time  possess 
such  a  public.  It  would  certainly  be  in  ac- 
cord with  our  birthright.  Teachers  abroad 
declare  that  the  largest  number  of  their  talented 
pupils  are  from  America,  but  that  Americans 
73 


For  My  Mxisicatl  Friend 

are  the  hardest  to  train.  Their  playing  or 
singing  is  so  apt  to  have  been  acquired  by  par- 
rot-Hke  imitation,  and  they  expect  to  supple- 
ment their  advanced  studies  by  a  top-dressing 
of  precisely  what  should  have  been  the  founda- 
tion of  their  education. 

It  is  objected  by  some  that  sight-reading  in- 
duces carelessness,  but  this  need  not  be  the  case 
if  it  be  the  result  of  direct  logical  methods. 
No  pupil  should  be  permitted  to  play  or  sing 
at  sight  any  work  which  offers  mechanical  or 
musical  difficulties  hitherto  unconquered. 
Compositions  should  be  chosen  for  the  effort 
belonging  to  grades  below  the  one  being 
studied.  Bearing  this  rule  in  mind,  a  short 
time  each  day  may  profitably  be  devoted  to 
sight-reading.  Four-hand  piano  compositions, 
or  concerted  pieces  for  several  voices  or  instru- 
ments, will  be  found  most  helpful  for  the  pur- 
pose. It  is  well  to  read  a  composition  over 
quietly  to  one's  self  before  attempting  to  in- 
terpret it  aloud. 

When  we  realize  all  that  music  may  do  for 
mankind  we  cannot  but  rejoice  at  its  generous 

74 


Sight-Reading  in  Music 

bestowal.  Music  is  not  for  genius  alone;  but, 
as  some  one  has  aptly  said,  most  people  are  en- 
dowed with  capabilities  which,  if  suitably 
directed,  may  lead  to  the  threshold  of  the  tem- 
ple where  genius  presides. 


75 


VI 

How  to  Memorize  Mxisic 

"It  is  not  enough  to  know  good  pieces  with 
your  fingers :  you  should  be  able  to  re- 
member them  without  a  piano-forte.  Sharpen 
your  powers  of  fancy,  that  you  may  remember 
correctly  not  only  the  melody  of  a  composi- 
tion, but  its  proper  harmonies  also." 

These  words  of  Robert  Schumann  should  be 
impressed  on  every  music  student.  Even  the 
pianist  who  labors  under  the  false  impression 
that  memorizing  is  impossible  unless  it  comes 
without  effort,  might  be  brought  through  them 
to  realize  that  whoever  is  capable  of  making 
progress  in  the  tonal  art  can  memorize  music. 

We  are  apt  to  think  of  memory  chiefly  as 
manifested  in  its  inferior  forms,  consequently 
to  underrate  it.  That  faculty  which  enables 
11 


For  My  Musica.!  Friend 

a  person  instinctively  to  remember  sounds, 
words,  figures,  or  any  detached  facts,  is  quite 
consistent  with  a  low  state  of  intellect.  A 
quick  ear  for  music  that  leads  its  possessor  to 
reproduce,  without  conscious  volition,  a  melody 
once  heard,  often  belongs  to  an  individual  de- 
void of  the  higher  musicianly  feeling  and  ac- 
quirements. 

Memory,  however,  is  not  a  single  faculty; 
it  is  a  quality  comprising  many  faculties.  The 
senses  are  important  component  parts,  but 
should  not  be  permitted  to  assume  the  principal 
role.  That  power  by  virtue  of  which  the  mind 
can  hold  up  before  itself  past  ideas,  emotions, 
or  sensations  with  the  vividness  of  direct  ex- 
perience, is  the  highest  phase  of  memory.  It 
is  usually  designated  by  the  term,  imagination, 
The  musican  who  commands  it  can  recall  at 
will  a  composition  that  has  once  been  taken 
into  his  inner  consciousness,  and  make  it  seem 
as  real  as  though  he  were  actually  listening  to 
it. 

A  retentive  memory  may  become  the  valued 
servant  of  every  normal  human  being.     Mem- 

78 


How  to  Memorize  M\isic 

ory  for  music,  as  well  as  other  kinds  of  mem- 
ory, may  be  strengthened  by  use,  and  weak- 
ened almost  to  worthlessness  by  neglect.  De- 
fects of  memory  are  largely  due  to  lack  of  at- 
tention. 

"It  is  a  law  of  mind,"  says  Sir  William 
Hamilton,  "that  the  intensity  of  the  present 
consciousness  determines  the  vivacity  of  the 
future  memory."  Certainly  there  is  no  surer 
means  of  success  than  to  fix  the  attention  on 
the  pursuit  in  hand,  excluding  from  the  mind 
every  other  object,  every  other  idea,  even  self. 
Too  little  thought  has  been  given  to  concentra- 
tion of  mind,  with  its  attendant  ability  to  pro- 
duce mental  images.  It  is  a  distinguishing 
trait  of  genius,  but  may  be  brought,  through 
education,  to  act  more  or  less  unconsciously 
in  every  healthy  individual.  In  memorizing 
music  it  is  a  prime  requisite,  and  where  it  does 
not  come  naturally  it  should  be  cultivated. 
One  of  its  most  helpful  auxiliaries,  in  the  case 
of  the  musician,  is  the  ear.  This  is  very  sus- 
ceptible to  education,  as  shown  by  the  blind, 
whose  great  source  of  dependence  it  is.     It  will 

79 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

only  impair  other  faculties  when  allowed  to 
run  riot.  Musical  memory,  in  its  best  sense, 
is  developed  by  training  the  ear  to  record  in- 
telligently what  it  hears,  the  mind  what  it 
thinks,  the  emotions  what  they  feel,  the  wdll 
what  it  commands,  and  the  muscles  what  they 
do. 

"If  any  one  ask  me  what  is  the  only  and 
great  art  of  memory,"  says  Quintilian,  "I  shall 
say  it  is  exercise  and  labor.  To  learn  much 
by  heart,  to  meditate  much,  and,  if  possible, 
daily,  are  the  most  efficacious  of  all  methods." 
The  old  Roman  scarcely  had  memorizing  music 
in  mind  when  he  formulated  these  words,  but 
they  may  well  be  applied  to  it.  Constant  effort, 
daily  exercise,  and  meditation  constitute  the 
chief  secret  of  this  art.  It  is  a  good  rule  not 
to  permit  a  day  to  pass  without  committing  to 
memory  some  musical  thought,  and  repeating 
one  or  more  of  the  pieces  previously  learned. 
Frequent  repetition  is  most  helpful  to  artistic 
interpretation. 

Study  what  you  would  memorize  both  with 
and  without  your  piano.     Observe    its    char- 

80 


JOHN   SEBASTIAN    BACH 


How  to  Memorize  M\isic 

acter,  the  key  in  which  it  is  written,  its  rhythm, 
metre,  and  movement,  its  liarmonies,  with  their 
relations — in  fact,  all  its  developments,  melod- 
ious and  harmonious.  Analyze  it  thoroughly, 
comparing  passage  with  passage,  tracing 
similarities  and  points  of  divergence,  thus  call- 
ing the  law  of  association  to  the  aid  of  that 
of  attention.  Imprint  on  your  mental  con- 
sciousness the  full  tonal  worth  of  each  note 
and  each  chord,  and  see  to  it  that  your  muscu- 
lar training  is  of  a  kind  to  make  your  fingers 
obedient  to  the  inner  voice. 

When  you  can  fully  orient  yourself  in  the 
composition,  close  your  eyes,  that  you  may 
look  only  within,  and  try  how  much  you  can 
recall  mentally ;  then,  with  eyes  still  closed,  try 
how  much  you  can  play.  If  your  fingei. 
stumble  over  a  passage,  repeat  this  several 
times,  first  with  eyes  fixed  on  the  notes,  again 
with  closed  eyes,  that  the  muscular  sense  may 
contribute  toward  fixing  the  impression.  Re- 
peated combined  action  of  the  inner  and  outer 
forces  tends  to  produce  clearness  and  accuracy 
of  image  and  permanence  of  possession. 
81 


For  My  Mvisicatl  Friend 

Do  not  give  yourself  a  greater  task  to  mem- 
orize daily  than  can  be  accomplished  without 
fatigue.  To  overstrain  your  powers  is  to  en- 
feeble them.  If  you  study  intelligently  you 
can  single  out  certain  phrases,  sentences,  or 
periods,  and  know  where  it  is  proper  to  stop. 
It  is  a  good  plan  to  write  down  from  memory 
what  you  have  committed,  even  to  transpose 
it  at  times  into  other  keys,  both  in  writing  and 
at  the  piano. 

It  was  according  to  the  directions  thus  given 
that  the  writer  was  taught  by  her  teacher,  Carl 
Gaertner,  to  memorize  music.  She  can  recall 
many  tears  shed  over  certain  Bach  preludes 
and  fugues  she  was  obliged  to  write  down  and 
play  from  memory,  both  in  their  own  and  in 
transposed  keys,  but  will  always  rejoice  in  the 
habits  of  lifelong  value  gained  through  the 
laborious  effort.  She  has  found  no  mean 
pleasure  in  the  quiet  morning  hours  before  ris- 
ing, or  in  the  still  watches  of  a  wakeful  night, 
to  be  able  to  enjoy  the  master- works  of  music 
mentally,  to  think  them  through  at  times  when 
unable    to    play    them    tlirough.     Fancy  how 

82 


How  to  Memorize  Music 

great  a  source  of  joy  this  must  be  when  the 
feebleness  of  old  age  or  ill  health  deprives  the 
musician  of  the  use  of  his  chosen  instrument! 

It  is  a  great  requirement  to  grasp  the  music 
without  the  notes  and  the  notes  without  the 
music,  but  it  is  essential  to  musicianship.  The 
composer  who  writes  the  tonal  work  must  do 
so;  the  performer  who  would  faithfully  inter- 
pret it  should  do  the  same.  "What  is  it  to 
be  intelligently  musical  ?"  asks  Schumann. 
"You  are  not  so  when,  with  eyes  painfully  fast- 
ened on  the  notes,  you  laboriously  play  a  piece 
through ;  you  are  not  so  when  you  stop  short 
and  find  it  impossible  to  proceed  because  some 
one  has  turned  over  two  pages  at  once.  But 
you  are  so  when,  in  playing  a  new  piece  you 
almost  foresee  what  is  coming,  when  you  play 
an  old  one  by  heart — in  short,  when  you  have 
taken  music  not  only  into  your  fingers,  but  into 
your  head  and  heart." 

You  cannot  take  music  into  your  head  and 
heart  and  make  it  absolutely  your  own,  so  that 
you  can  interpret  it  with  all  the  warmth  and 
color  belonging  to  it,  unless  you  intelligently 

83 


For  My  Musica.1  Friend 

memorize  it.  No  chord  ever  sounds  so  free 
as  that  played  without  notes;  no  composition 
can  be  rendered  with  perfect  freedom  when  the 
written  notes  stand  as  a  barrier  between  the 
fancy  and  the  fingers.  Even  the  mental  image 
of  the  notes,  as  such,  must  finally  give  place 
to  the  unadulterated  image  of  the  tones  in  their 
fullest  significance,  which  should  follow  you 
while  you  play,  guiding  your  fingers,  if  you 
would  achieve  good  results. 

Hans  von  Billow,  whose  musical  memory 
was  so  strong,  was  not  content,  when  director 
of  the  Meiningen  orchestra,  to  conduct  without 
a  score,  but  endeavored,  though  unsuccess- 
fully, to  induce  members  of  his  orchestra  to 
play  without  notes.  It  was  perhaps  too  much 
to  ask,  and  yet  we  know  that  an  orchestra  plays 
best  what  it  plays  so  often  that  each  member 
knows  nearly,  if  not  quite,  by  heart  his  own  part 
as  well  as  the  important  parts  of  other  mem- 
bers. Even  when  the  performer  deems  it  wise 
to  place  the  notes  on  the  desk  before  him  for 
occasional  reference,  the  less  he  is  compelled 
to  heed  them  the  better. 
84 


How  to  Memorize  Music 

Do  not  forget  to  trust  your  memory,  for, 
however  great  it  may  be,  you  will  make  it 
greater  by  confiding  in  it.  An  anecdote  is  told 
of  a  gifted  Norwegian  pianiste,  Madame  Erika 
Lie  Nissen,  sister  of  Jonas  Lie,  illustrating 
what  may  be  accomplished  by  trusting  a  prac- 
tised memory.  On  arriving  at  a  foreign  con- 
cert hall  one  evening,  Madame  Nissen  learned 
she  was  announced  to  play  a  composition  she 
had  not  recently  reviewed.  Disliking  to  change 
the  programme,  she  sat  quietly  down  in  the 
greenroom  and  called  up  the  piece  mentally, 
following  it  with  her  fingers  on  her  knees — a 
habit  of  hers.  A  few  complicated  passages 
failed  to  become  clear  to  her,  and  it  was  time 
for  her  to  go  on  the  stage  before  the  messenger 
sent  for  a  copy  of  the  notes  had  returned. 
Trusting  to  the  inspiration  of  the  moment, 
feeling  sure  what  had  been  her  own  could  not 
forsake  her,  and  believing  the  accustomed 
muscular  sense  would  help  suggest  the  se- 
quence of  the  movement,  she  began  to  play. 
She  was  rewarded  by  having  the  piece  flow  in 


&5 


For  My  MusicaLl  Friend 

an  unbroken  stream  from  her  highly  wrought 
soul,  helped  by  skilled  fingers. 

How  can  that  high  musicianship  be  attained, 
it  is  asked,  which  enables  one  to  translate  notes 
into  tones  heard  mentally,  and,  even  more,  to 
imagine  a  complicated  orchestral  work,  or  any 
other  composition  to  which  we  listen  for  the 
first  time,  as  it  would  appear  in  the  written 
score  ?  Turning  once  more  to  our  Schumann, 
we  read :  "Dear  child,  the  principal  requisites, 
a  fine  ear  and  a  swift  power  of  comprehension, 
come,  like  all  things,  from  above.  But  this 
foundation  must  be  improved  and  increased. 
You  cannot  do  this  by  shutting  yourself  up 
all  day  like  a  hermit  and  practising  mechanical 
exercises,  but  through  a  vital  many-sided 
musical  activity,  and  especially  through  famil- 
iarity with  chorus  and  orchestra." 

That  noble  woman  and  artist,  Madame  Clara 
Schumann,  who  rested  from  her  long  life  of 
service  May  20,  1896,  and  whose  best  powers 
were  given  to  interpreting  the  works  of  her 
husband,  Robert  Schumann,  was  from  child- 
hood characterized  by  her  rare  musical  mem- 
86 


How  to  Memorize  Music 

ory.  She  owed  its  development  to  her  father, 
Friedrich  Wieck.  Look  into  his  Piano 
Studies,  and  you  will  see  he  directs  that  each 
formula  for  five-finger  and  other  exercises  be 
committed  to  memory  and  transposed  into 
various  keys.  His  pupils  had  to  memorize 
everything. 

A  child  can  readily  be  interested  in  music  if 
taught  intelligently.  Let  him  build  scales, 
form  chords,  and  learn  the  why  and  wherefore 
of  each  step  taken,  and  memory  will  be  a  mat- 
ter of  thorough  conprehension.  Youth  is  the 
time  to  begin  to  memorize,  but  a  well-exercised 
memory  will  continue  to  strengthen  through- 
out active  existence.  The  writer,  after  half  a 
century  of  life,  can  learn  a  difficult  composition 
by  heart  with  far  more  facility  than  in  youth. 

The  French  philosopher  Pascal  is  said  to 
have  forgotten  nothing  he  had  ever  read, 
thought,  or  consciously  done,  until  the  decay 
of  health  impaired  his  memory.  What  a 
charming  thing  it  would  be  for  the  faithful 
servitor  of  the  divine  art  who  could  say  the 
same!  A  musician  should  know  all  the  most 
87 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

remarkable  works  of  the  most  remarkable  mas- 
ters, and  know  them,  as  far  as  possible,  by 
heart.  How  can  time  be  found  for  this,  you 
ask.  By  fixing  your  mind  on  your  work,  my 
friend,  you  can  accomplish  more  in  half  an  hour 
than  in  many  hours  with  a  wandering-  mind. 

"There  is  time  enough  for  everything  in  the 
course  of  the  day  if  you  do  but  one  thing  at 
once,"  says  Lord  Chesterfield,  "but  there  is  not 
time  enough  in  the  year  if  you  will  do  two 
things  at  a  time." 


88 


VII 

TKe  Pianist's  Left  Hand 

The  hand  of  man  is  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinctive characteristics  of  his  race.  It  is  the 
instrument  that  works  harmoniously  with  heart 
and  brain,  and  that  is  pre-eminently  adapted 
to  execute  the  purposes  of  intelligent  volition. 
Moreover,  it  is  an  index  of  character  from 
childhood  to  old  age,  an  unerring  exponent  of 
physical  and  mental  conditions.  In  a  person  of 
strong  self-control  the  countenance  may  be  so 
masked  as  wholly  to  conceal  the  workings  of 
the  inner  being.  The  hand  cannot  be  thus 
masked.  It  is  sure  to  betray  its  owner's  spirit- 
ual, mental,  and  physical  state.  It  is  a  wonder- 
ful exponent  of  the  lights  and  shadows  within. 
This  is  peculiarly  the  case  with  the  right  hand. 

As  man  rises  in  the  scale  of  intellectual  supe- 
89 


For  My  Musica.!  Friend 

riority,  as  his  creative  faculties  strengthen,  one 
hand  becomes  more  and  more  skillful  in  exe- 
cuting his  carefully  conceived  designs,  more 
and  more  ready  to  interpret  his  thoughts  and 
emotions,  whether  actively  or  passively,  while 
the  other,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  is  relegated 
to  a  subordinate  place.  From  the  remotest 
antiquity  the  preference  seems  to  have  been 
given  to  one  and  the  same  hand. 

Pages  have  been  written  on  this  subject. 
Again  and  again  it  has  been  asked :  Is  the  dis- 
tinctive preference  manifested  for  the  right 
hand  the  acquired  result  of  civilization?  Or 
is  it  rather  natural  because  this  hand  is  the 
more  perfect  organ  of  manipulation  ?  Various 
theories  have  been  propounded  in  response  to 
these  questions,  but  physiologists  have  been 
baffled  in  the  search  for  absolute  certainty  re- 
garding the  cause  of  the  choice. 

When  Carlyle,  at  the  advanced  age  of 
seventy-five,  lost  the  use  of  that  right  hand 
which  had  so  long  wielded  the  pen  with  mar- 
vellous influence  over  the  age  in  which  he  lived, 
he  pondered  much  on  the  problem  of  the  almost 

90 


The  PiejLiiisf  s  Left  Hativd 

universal  choice  of  that  special  hand  for  use. 
He  concluded  that  it  arose  in  fighting,  as  that 
was  the  hand  required  to  protect  the  heart. 

Unquestionably,  in  the  exigencies  of  war  and 
the  chase,  promptness  and  skill  have  demanded 
that  there  should  be  no  hesitation  as  to  which 
hand  should  be  put  forward.  Sundry  other 
cases  of  combined  action  have  rendered  it  im- 
perative that  all  engaged  should  use  the  same 
hand. 

The  idea  of  the  right  hand  as  the  more  relia- 
ble, the  more  skillful,  hence  the  more  honored 
member,  seems  to  be  coeval  with  the  earliest 
known  use  of  language.  Frequent  mention  is 
made  of  this  hand  as  the  organ  of  power,  dig- 
nity, and  action,  both  in  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  as  well  as  in  Greek  and  Latin 
classic  lore,  and  in  other  records  of  a  people's 
thought. 

The  prophet  Isaiah  tells  us  that  "the  Lord 
hath  sworn  by  his  right  hand,"  meaning  the 
same  as  when  the  Arabs  say,  "By  the  right  hand 
of  Allah."  In  the  gospel  we  read,  "When  thou 
doest  alms  let  not  thy  left  hand  know  what  thy 
9J 


For  My  Musicatl  Friend 

right  hand  doeth."  The  right  hand  is  given  to 
the  wretched  in  the  ^neid.  Numerous  in- 
stances of  the  kind  might  be  cited. 

In  all  ordinary  experience  the  conception  of 
weakness,  uncertainty,  and  unreliability  at- 
taches itself  to  the  left  hand,  leading  to  the 
thought  of  unreliability  in  a  moral  sense. 
This  is  quite  natural,  since  with  the  average 
man  the  left  hand  is  the  less  ready,  the  less 
dexterous,  and  altogether  the  weaker  member. 

Every  general  rule,  however,  has  its  excep- 
tions, and  the  exceptions  to  the  rule  in  regard 
to  the  choice  of  hands  seem  to  have  appeared 
in  all  ages  of  the  world's  history,  in  the  ratio 
of  about  two  to  every  hundred  people.  It  is 
an  interesting  fact  that  the  largest  proportion 
of  those  who  are  called  left-handed  are  wo- 
men. 

Left-handed  people  are  apt  to  be  deft-handed 
and  certainly  have  advantages  calculated  to 
make  them  exceedingly  skillful,  helpful  and 
neat.  The  necessities  of  social  life  compel 
them  to  cultivate  also  the  skill  of  the  right  hand, 


92 


The  PieLiiisf  s  Left  HaLi\d 

and  by  thus  becoming  ambidextrous  they  gain 
a  decided  advantage  over  other  people. 

The  Book  of  Judges  tells  that  in  the  tribe  of 
Benjamin,  there  was  a  body  of  700  chosen 
marksmen,  all  of  them  left-handed,  assigned 
to  special  work  because  of  their  pre-eminent 
skill.  Every  one  of  them  could  sling  stones 
at  a  hair's  breadth  without  missing  the  mark. 
As  26,000  Benjamites  drew  sword,  the  pro- 
portion of  this  body  to  the  whole  was  the  usual 
one — that  is,  a  little  more  than  two  per  cent. 

There  is  frequent  allusion  to  these  left- 
handed  warriors,  and  the  Book  of  Chronicles 
refers  to  them  as  mighty  men  who  could  shoot 
arrows  from  a  bow,  or  hurl  stones,  with  either 
hand.  Indeed,  the  skill  of  combatants  in  hit- 
ting with  both  the  right  and  left  hand  is  a 
favorite  theme  of  poetic  laudation. 

In  all  the  fine  arts  ambidexterity  is  conducive 
to  success,  and  the  left-handed  artist,  with  his 
natural  ease  and  acquired  dexterity  combined, 
may  well  be  deemed  fortunate.  The  left- 
handed  pianist  has  little  trouble  in  gaining  free- 


93 


For  My  Musicatl  Friend 

dom  of  execution  with  both  hands.  The  bass 
of  such  a  pianist  is  apt  to  be  magnificent. 

InequaHty  of  the  hands  becomes  peculiarly 
apparent  in  the  pianist.  One  of  the  marked 
differences  between  the  average  amateur  and 
the  artistic  performer  is  in  the  balance  of  the 
treble  and  the  bass.  That  unity  of  tone,  phras- 
ing, and  expression  produced  by  a  fine  string 
quartette,  in  which  each  performer  has  but  one 
part  or  voice  to  take  care  of,  the  pianist  is  ex- 
pected to  call  into  being  with  his  own  good 
hands.  The  emotions  must  be  well  controlled, 
the  intellect  free  and  unclouded,  the  muscles 
strong,  pliable,  and  submissive,  to  enable  one 
person  to  manipulate  with  his  ten  fingers  what 
represents  several  voices. 

Few  people  consider  the  difficulties  with 
which  the  aspiring  pianist  has  to  contend.  He 
must  avoid  neglecting  the  bass  in  amateur 
fashion  during  the  execution  of  a  brilliant  or 
effective  passage  with  the  right  hand.  When 
the  latter  stumbles  in  its  ambitious  effort,  he 
must  not  fiercely  attack  the  bass  as  though  to 
compensate  for  failure  at  the  other  end  of  the 

94 


The  Pianist's  Left  Hand 

line.  Above  all,  he  must  beware  of  holding 
the  left-hand  chords  beyond  their  prescribed 
length  in  moments  of  perplexity,  clinging  to 
them  as  a  drowning  person  grasps  support  in 
danger. 

Even  where  certain  portions  of  the  music 
dominate  others,  as  in  the  case  of  melody  and 
accompaniment,  the  parts  should  be  well 
balanced,  no  one  voice  being  allowed  to  over- 
ride the  other ;  otherwise  confusion  will  prevail. 
The  proper  balance  of  power  can  only  be  main- 
tained on  the  piano  with  the  greatest  discre- 
tion, avoiding  exaggeration  in  subduing  the  ac- 
companiment, and  paying  due  respect  to  the 
beauties  of  the  bass. 

There  is  no  reason  why  the  left  hand  of  the 
amateur  should  not  be  as  well  trained,  so  far 
as  the  training  goes,  as  that  of  the  artist.  It 
should  from  the  first  start  be  compelled  to 
obey  the  emotions,  the  intellect  and  the  will. 
A  great  deal  of  time  is  wasted,  in  the  pianist's 
musical  education,  by  practising  as  much  with 
the  stronger  hand  as  with  the  weaker,  precisely 
as  it  is  wasted  by  practising  as  much  with  the 
95 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

stronger  as  with  the  weaker  fingers.  In  both 
cases  the  stronger  continually  increases  in 
strength  while  the  gap  between  this  and  the 
weaker  does  not  lessen. 

Trashy  piano  music,  with  thin  harmonies, 
gives  the  lion's  share  of  what  effort  it  necessi- 
tates to  the  right  hand,  while  of  the  left  is  re- 
quired but  a  feeble  thrumming.  All  good, 
well-written  music,  whether  difficult  or  easy, 
makes  equal  demands  on  both  hands.  The 
faithful  teacher  should  see  to  it  that  the  student 
does  such  music  justice  by  training  the  left 
hand  to  equal  skill  with  the  right.  Where 
an  instinctive  preference  is  shown  for  the  left, 
the  right  must  be  the  more  carefully  drilled, 
but  in  this  instance,  as  has  been  shown,  the 
student  is  at  a  certain  advantage. 

Old  Father  Bach  gave,  in  all  his  composi- 
tions, equal  play  to  both  hands.  A  painstaking 
practice  of  the  left  hand  of  his  inventions  and 
fugues,  then  of  both  hands,  will  do  much  to- 
ward the  achievement  of  equality.  Beet- 
hoven, as  well,  is  one  of  the  masters  who  ex- 
pect all  ten  fingers  to  obey  their  behests,  and 
96 


The  Pianist's  Left  HaLi\d 

the  pianist  who  would  interpret  his  creations 
must  be  able  to  express  as  much  with  one  hand 
as  with  the  other. 

It  has  been  said  truly  that  the  educated  hand 
is  the  most  perfect  instrument  by  means  of 
which  imagination  and  idealism  are  translated 
into  fact.  Two  such  instruments  the  skillful 
pianist  must  possess.  Education  should  make 
him  ambidextrous,  whether  his  instinctive  pref- 
erence be  for  the  right  or  the  left  hand.  Con- 
sequently he,  of  all  people,  should  enjoy  to  the 
utmost  the  advantages  arising  from  well-de- 
veloped brains,  heart,  and  all  the  mental  and 
physical  faculties. 


97 


VIII 

ToucK  and  Tone  in  Piano  Play- 
ing 

Our  musical  world  was  agitated  not  long 
ago  by  the  statement  of  a  certain  professor  of 
music  that  a  pianist's  greatest  command  over 
tone,  except  in  the  matter  of  loudness  or  soft- 
ness, is  exerted  through  the  dampers,  either  by 
means  of  the  keyboard  or  the  first  pedal. 
What  is  commonly  called  good  or  bad  touch 
in  piano  playing,  he  maintained,  lies  rather  in 
the  brains  than  in  the  fingers.  It  is  far  more 
dependent  on  the  manner  of  holding  or  releas- 
ing the  key  after  it  is  struck,  on  the  proper  or 
improper  use  of  the  first  pedal,  and  on  the  way 
successive  notes  of  a  phrase  are  made  to  fol- 
low one  another,  than  on  any  particular  method 
of  striking  the  keys. 

Forthwith  was  heard  a  volley  of  opinions 
99 


For  My  M\isica.l  Friend 

concerning  ways  and  means  of  evolving  tone 
from  the  most  popular  musical  instrument  of 
the  day.  If  the  projector  of  the  original  bomb 
merely  desired  to  call  attention  to  the  much- 
neglected  question  of  damper  control,  he  has 
done  good  work.  Whatever  may  have  been 
his  motive,  he  has  done  well  in  fixing  the  at- 
tention of  teachers  and  students  of  the  piano 
on  tone-production. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  in  the  heat  of 
the  discussion  on  this  vital  theme  the  cable 
flashed  tidings  to  us  from  Europe  of  the  pass- 
ing away  of  two  great  personalities  whose  con- 
tributions to  tone-knowledge  have  been  invalu- 
able. These  were  Hermann  Helmholtz,  who 
died  September  8,  1894,  and  Anton  Gregor 
Rubinstein,  whose  sudden  death,  November 
20th,  of  the  same  year,  was  a  great  shock  to 
many  of  us.  The  one  shed  light  on  tone-phi- 
losophy; the  other  practically  exemplified  the 
tone-possibilities  of  the  piano-forte. 

Helmholtz  spanned  the  gulf  between  the 
science  of  acoustics  and  the  art  of  music.  Long 
before  his  time  it  had  been  recognized  that 
JOO 


Touch  a^nd  Tone  in  Pia-rvo  Playing 

the  vibrations  of  a  stretched  elastic  string  may 
produce  five  or  more  different  sounds,  or  partial 
tones,  at  the  same  time,  the  strongest  of  which 
is  the  fundamental  tone  of  the  string,  the  others 
being  usually  designated  harmonics.  By  the 
most  conclusive  proofs  he  showed  that  the  num- 
ber and  proportionate  strength  of  these  partial 
tones  determine  those  differences  of  character 
in  musical  sounds  of  the  same  pitch  and  loud- 
ness which  the  French  call  timbre,  and  the  Ger- 
mans Klangfarbe — tone-color. 

Many  of  us  realized  for  the  first  time  the 
capabilities  of  the  piano-forte  when  Rubinstein 
visited  America  in  1872-3.  The  warm  touch 
of  this  impassioned  artist  seemed  to  transform 
the  ivory  keys  into  tones  whose  nobility,  varied 
shadings,  and  infinite  power  of  expression  had 
never  been  known  before.  His  playing  was  re- 
markable for  magnificent  technique,  touch,  and 
tone,  illumined  by  the  fire  of  genius.  Every 
technical  form  or  figure,  as  well  as  the  melody, 
became  alive  and  well  freighted  with  sentiment 
when  handled  by  his  vital  fingers.  He  has 
been  aptly  called  the  Russian  tone-painter,  the 


For  My  Musicatl  Friend 

greatest  colorist  that  ever  attempted  to  show 
the  gorgeous  rainbow  tints  imprisoned  in  black 
and  white.  His  majestic,  well-sustained  vol- 
ume of  tone  won  for  him  the  title  of  thunderer, 
yet  no  one  could  be  so  amazingly  light,  grace- 
ful, and  full  of  reserve  force  as  he.  His 
damper-control  was  original  and  masterly,  but 
was  employed  as  a  mere  auxiliary  to  musical 
touch. 

He  always  declared  the  real  difificulty  of 
piano  playing  to  lie  in  the  acquirement  of  a  cer- 
tain kind  of  touch.  When  asked  about  his  own 
touch  he  would  hold  up  his  massive  hand  and 
say:  "Look  at  that!  I  have  phenomenal  fin- 
gers, and  I  have  cultivated  phenomenal  strength 
with  lightness.  That  is  one  secret  of  my 
touch :  the  other  is  assiduous  study  in  my  early 
days.  I  have  sat  for  hours  trying  to  imitate 
the  timbre  of  Rubini's  voice  in  my  playing,  and 
it  is  only  with  labor  and  tears  bitter  as  death 
that  the  artist  arrives  at  perfection.  Few' 
know  this,  consequently  there  are  few  artists." 
Rubini  was  that  famous  Italian  tenor  who 
visited  St.  Petersburg  in  1843. 
J  02 


Touch  and  Tone  in  Piano  Playing 

A  musical  touch  is  unquestionably  the  phi- 
losopher's stone  in  piano  playing.  In  its  high- 
est manifestations  it  may  be  attained  by  a 
musical  temperament  alone,  but  it  may  be  de- 
veloped to  a  greater  or  less  degree  by  any  one 
who  is  capable  of  learning  to  play.  It  is  fatal 
to  delay  seeking  it  until  all  poetry  of  senti- 
ment has  been  banished  by  that  dry  technique 
the  fingers  rain  while  the  mind  wanders  to 
anything  in  the  world  but  tone.  It  is  never 
too  early  to  begin  to  study  tone,  precisely  as 
the  painter  studies  color.  Moreover,  the  stu- 
dent should  always  have  in  mind  some  beauti- 
ful golden  tone-model  which  it  is  his  continual 
endeavor  to  attain.  He  who  is  able  to  think 
tone  riglitly  can,  with  skilled  fingers,  call  it 
into  being. 

In  order  to  produce  a  fine  tone  on  the  piano 
it  is  necessary  to  have  a  hand  favorable,  an 
ear  delicate  enough  to  detect  the  finest  nuance 
of  tone,  and  a  well-controlled  intelligence  en- 
riched by  poetic  fancy.  First  of  all,  the 
pianist's  touch  is  a  mental  conception ;  other- 
wise the  best-trained  fingers    could    not    find 

103 


For  My  Mxisica.!  Friend 

their  way  to  the  keyboard.  For  genuine  tone- 
production  all  the  muscles  of  fingers,  wrists, 
and  arms  that  have  to  do  with  piano  playing 
should  be  elastic,  pliable,  and  well  developed. 
There  should  be  perfect  equality  of  fingers  and 
entire  freedom  of  action.  Careful  considera- 
tion will  soon  show  that  when  the  attack  has 
once  been  made,  the  only  shading  possible  comes 
through  the  dampers.  The  judicious,  phil- 
osophic use  of  these  is  a  matter  much  neglected. 
It  cannot  conceal  or  make  good  a  bad  touch, 
but  it  is  absolutely  essential  to  good  playing. 
Besides  physical  flexibility  and  grace,  the  player 
should  have  delicate  perception,  sensitiveness, 
and  a  soul.  No  technical  equipment,  however 
large,  will  compensate  for  lack  of  these. 

We  read  of  the  master,  Johann  Sebastian 
Bach,  that  his  playing  was  remarkable  for  its 
tranquil  grandeur  and  dignity.  His  fingers 
were  so  bent  over  the  keyboard  that  they  stood 
with  points  downward  in  a  vertical  line,  ready 
for  action  at  any  moment.  In  withdrawing  a 
finger  from  a  key  he  moved  it  gently  inward, 
as  if  taking  a  coin  from  a  table.     The  attempt 

J  04 


Touch  and  Tone  in  Piano  Playing 

to  imitate  his  style  has  made  many  a  pianist 
stiff  and  lifeless,  because  the  important  fact 
was  lost  sight  of  that  the  keyed  instrument  for 
which  he  wrote  and  which  he  most  delighted 
to  play,  the  clavichord,  had  so  light  an  action 
that  the  least  pressure  of  the  key  could  produce 
a  sound.  The  tone  of  the  clavichord  was 
charmingly  tremulous,  reflecting  the  most  ten- 
der gradations  of  the  player's  touch.  In  power 
of  expression  it  was  unrivalled  until  the  modern 
piano-forte  was  evolved  from  all  early  begin- 
nings. Bach  preferred  it  to  instruments  of  the 
spinet  family,  in  which  he  found  no  soul,  be- 
cause they  were  incapable  of  dynamic  modifi- 
cations of  tone,  and  to  the  newly  invented 
piano-forte  of  his  day,  which  he  thought  ex- 
ceedingly clumsy. 

A  rigid  performance  of  Bach's  works  con- 
ceals the  beauty  of  their  melodies.  Rubin- 
stein divined  the  poetry  of  these  marvellous 
tone-creations.  It  was  a  joy  never  to  be  for- 
gotten to  hear  him  play  the  fugues  in  a  grace- 
ful flowing  style,  allowing  each  voice  to  be 
heard  in  due  proportion,  without  letting  any 

105 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

become  too  assertive.  Bach's  son,  Philipp 
Emanuel,  was  the  first  to  recognize  the  ad- 
vantages suggested  by  the  young  piano-forte, 
and  to  advocate  a  singing  tone.  "Methinks," 
said  he,  "music  ought  principally  to  move  the 
heart,"  and  no  performance  on  the  piano-forte 
will  succeed  in  this  by  merely  thumping  and 
drumming. 

We  have  been  taught  to  consider  the  piano 
the  most  unresponsive  of  all  musical  instru- 
ments, yet  when  we  view  it  intelligently  we 
find  it  more  responsive  than  any  other  instru- 
ment in  affording  a  glimpse  of  that  mysterious 
realm,  a  player's  soul.  It  is  only  cold  and 
mechanical  when  the  man  or  woman  who  sits 
at  the  keyboard  is  a  human  automaton,  with 
hammer-fingers  and  cold  blood.  Not  only  is 
it  the  musical  instrument  of  the  day,  it  is  the 
coming  instrument,  whose  value  and  service 
we  are  only  beginning  dimly  to  surmise. 

To  those  who  have  heard  many  performers 
it  is  interesting  to  note  the  individuality  of  each. 
Liszt  was  the  prophet  of  the  piano-forte.  He 
made  manifest  possibilities  in  it  not  thought 

106 


Touch  a.nd  Tone  in  Pia.no  Playing 

of  before  his  time,  and  used  it  to  imitate 
orchestral  effects.  True,  in  his  effort,  he 
pushed  it  beyond  its  legitimate  sphere,  and  his 
followers  actually  slaughtered  the  instrument 
in  their  fierce  demands  on  it.  Chopin,  with  his 
wonderful, ethereal  touch,  was  styled  the  poet  of 
the  piano.  His  best  thoughts  were  expressed 
on  it;  he  wrote  for  it  with  a  view  to  what  it 
could  do.  Thalberg,  with  his  full,  light,  ener- 
getic touch  and  marvellous  legato,  was  called 
the  king  of  the  piano  in  his  day.  His  playing 
was  characterized  by  aristocratic  elegance,  but 
it  was  cold. 

Rubinstein  was  a  master  of  the  keyboard, 
whose  individuality  was  so  strong  that  every- 
thing he  touched  was  impregnated  with  it. 
Critics  have  sometimes  expressed  themselves 
as  saddened  by  his  occasional  tempestuous  out- 
bursts, that  swept  like  some  great  elemental 
catastrophe  over  the  keyboard.  These  gusts 
and  caprices,  like  all  else  in  his  playing,  were 
but  indicative  of  a  personality  in  which  the 
great  and  good  predominated,  but  whose  emo- 
tionality was  in  excess  of  his  self-control.  At 
J07 


For  My  Mvisica.!  Friend 

times,  in  his  fury,  he  hit  a  wrong  note,  but,  as 
some  one  has  said,  his  wrong  notes  were  better 
than  the  right  ones  of  others,  for,  however 
strong  his  excitement,  he  always  produced  a 
musical  tone. 

Unmistakably  he  was  a  subjective  player. 
Von  Bulow,  who  died  in  Cairo,  February  13, 
1894,  has  been  called  an  objective  player.  He 
was  so  classically  correct  in  his  phrasing,  so 
true  to  the  idea  of  each  master  whose  works 
he  performed,  that  he  was  a  model  for  all 
students  and  teachers  of  the  piano.  Those 
who  heard  him  during  his  first  visit  to  Amer- 
ica, in  1875-6,  and  again  in  1889,  will  never 
forget  what  they  learned  from  him,  even 
though  he  did  not  fascinate,  enthrall,  and  in- 
spire them  as  Rubinstein  did.  Von  Biilow  was 
not  wholly  an  objective  performer,  however. 
Everything  he  played  revealed  the  hard,  in- 
flexible, pedantic  nature  of  the  man.  He  was 
a  pianist  for  pianists.  His  clear  logical  brain 
accurately  analyzed  a  composition,  and  he  so 
dissected  phrase  after  phrase,  section  after  sec- 

J08 


Touch  a-nd  Tone  in  Pia.no  Playing 

tion,  as  to  present  a  magnificent  object-lesson 
to  his  audience. 

How  about  the  brilliant  Pole,  Ignace  Pad- 
erewski?  That  generous-hearted  man  ex- 
presses his  whole  nature  in  his  piano-playing. 
He  feels  deeply  himself,  and  compels  his  hear- 
ers to  feel  with  him.  His  treatment  of  the 
piano-forte  is  unique;  his  handling  of  hack- 
neyed passage-work  so  distinctive  as  to  spirit- 
ualize it.  Since  the  visit  of  Rubinstein  to  this 
country,  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago, 
no  pianist  has  aroused  so  great  and  so  wide- 
spread enthusiasm  as  he.  His  genius  is  not  so 
transcendent  as  was  that  of  Rubinstein,  but  he 
possesses  to  a  large  degree  the  scholarly  self- 
control  the  age  demands.  It  has  been  noted 
that  with  years  the  gifted  Pole  has  gained  in 
breadth  and  in  impetuosity,  and  that  now  in 
moments  of  excitement,  when  a  climax  is 
reached,  he  makes  occasional  slips,  like  his  Rus- 
sian predecessor.  These  slips  evoke  from  the 
critics  howls  of  wrath — or  may  it  not  be  of  joy 
at  the  revelation  of  weakness  ? — and  show,  as  it 


J09 


For  My  Musica.!  Friend 

has  been  wisely  remarked,  that  added  fire  and 
passion  have  attendant  disadvantages,  which 
no  temperamental  artist  escapes. 

Paderewski  has  said  that  technique  may  be 
attained  by  hard  work,  but  that  touch  is  born 
in  the  artist.  Nevertheless,  his  own  course 
proves  that  he  believes  a  musical  touch  may  be 
cultivated.  His  ideals  are  lofty.  As  a  boy  he 
sat  for  hours  before  the  piano,  striking  the 
same  note  over  and  over  again,  until  he  suc- 
ceeded in  making  the  strings  so  vibrate  as  to 
produce  the  exact  quality  of  tone  he  had  in 
mind. 

Therein  lies  the  solution  of  the  touch 
problem.  You  cannot  have  a  good  touch  un- 
less you  cultivate  an  exquisite  inner  sense  of 
tone-color.  There  are  countless  ways  of  mak- 
ing the  strings  vibrate,  and  no  two  persons  can 
do  it  in  precisely  the  same  fashion,  any  more 
than  they  can  speak  alike,  read  alike,  or  look 
alike.  As  no  two  hands  are  alike,  that  teacher 
is  wise  who  permits  his  pupil's  hands  to  assume 
their  natural   positio-.i   at   t1ie  keyboard.     Be- 

uo 


Touch  and  Tone  in  Piano  Playing 

yoncl  all  else  it  must  be  remembered  that  to 
produce  a  pure,  noble,  sonorous,  poetic  tone 
requires  Herculean  strength  combined  with 
lightness  and  great  mental  concentration. 


Ml 


IX 

How  to  Study  M\isic 

When  Carlyle  lay  on  his  death-bed  Prof. 
Tyndall  called  on  him  for  some  helpful  fare- 
well word.  Raising  his  eyes  to  the  eager  face 
bowed  over  him,  the  dying  man  said :  "Give 
yourself  royally." 

Could  more  have  been  desired  ?  These  three 
words  are  full  of  import  to  students  of  science 
and  letters.  They  are  equally  valuable  to  stu- 
dents of  music. 

"Give  yourself  royally"  when  you  study 
music.  Give  the  best  that  is  in  you.  Thus 
only  can  the  best  that  is  in  music  be  grasped. 
Thus  only  can  be  reached  the  lofty  ideal  music 
represents. 

"Give  yourself  royally."  By  so  doing  alone 
can  those  habits  of  mental  concentration  be  ac- 
quired in  which  centers  the  secret  of  success 
in  every  aim  of  life. 

US 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

Genius  has  been  defined  as  infinite  patience. 
It  were  better  to  call  it  infinite  concentration 
of  the  mental,  spiritual,  and  physical  forces. 
To  a  certain  degree  concentration  is  possible 
for  every  one  who  faithfully  seeks  it.  Com- 
paratively few  teachers  of  music  impress  on 
their  pupils  its  urgency.  Yet  the  ability  to 
concentrate  one's  powers  right  royally  is  of 
prime  importance  in  the  study  of  music. 

The  teacher  who  does  his  duty  is  compelled 
to  give  himself  royally.  This  does  not  mean 
to  lift  the  burden  of  responsibility  and  effort 
from  the  pupil.  It  means  to  guide  the  pupil's 
footsteps  into  the  right  path ;  that  he  must  tread 
his  own  way.  It  means  to  show,  by  precept 
and  example,  what  is  meant  by  giving  one's 
self  royally  to  music. 

No  student  of  music  should  rest  content  with 
empty  technique.  It  is  an  established  fact  that 
just  so  much  as  music  says  something  to  those 
who  give  themselves  to  it,  by  just  so  much  it 
becomes  an  influential  force  in  their  lives.  We 
are  fast  approaching  the  time  when  this  force 
will  be  universally  employed  in  the  educational 
U4 


How^  to  St\idy  Music 

work  of  the  civilized  world.  Music  is  of  value 
in  proportion  to  what  it  says  to  people.  Tech- 
nique is  a  means  of  giving  utterance  to  its  inner 
message. 

Philipp  Emanuel  Bach  was  indeed  right 
when  he  said  three  things  were  needful  to  make 
an  artistic  musical  performer,  and  pointed  to 
the  head,  the  seat  of  understanding;  the  heart, 
the  seat  of  the  emotions,  and  the  fingers,  as 
symbolic  of  technical  skill.  Head,  heart,  and 
hands  should  be  schooled  right  royally  by  the 
one  who  studies  music. 

His  father,  the  great  Sebastian  Bach,  always 
insisted  that  the  practice  of  the  clavichord 
should  go  hand  in  hand  with  composition.  No 
one  could  play  musically  who  could  not  think 
musically,  he  said.  If  a  pupil  complained  or 
grew  down-hearted,  because  of  difficulties,  he 
would  say :  "You  have  as  good  fingers  as  I. 
I  had  to  work;  whoever  is  equally  industrious 
will  succeed." 

The  idea  of  writing  music  while  studying 
it  is  a  valuable  one.  It  is  precisely  the  same 
as  what  is  considered  indispensable  in  learning 
US 


For  My  Musica.!  Friend 

the  language  of  speech.  Every  student  of 
music  should  do  a  great  deal  of  writing  away 
from  an  instrument.  Not  only  should  scales 
and  chords  be  written  after  the  student  has 
learned  how  to  build  them,  but  little  original 
motives,  phrases,  sections,  periods,  and  com- 
plete melodies  should  be  thought  out  and 
written  down.  It  no  more  requires  a  great 
composer  to  do  this  than  it  requires  a  great 
author  to  write  a  school  composition,  and  one 
is  as  important  as  the  other. 

A  musical  composition  can  not  be  adequately 
interpreted  until  it  has  been  intelligently  mem- 
orized. This  does  not  mean  playing  by  ear, 
which  may  be  a  mere  matter  of  parrot-like 
imitation.  A  piece  is  not  thoroughly  memo- 
rized until  it  can  be  written  down  from  mem- 
ory. An  excellent  drill  for  an  advanced  pupil 
in  memorizing  music  is  to  write  down  a  Bach 
fugue,  section  by  section,  from  memory,  first 
in  the  key  in  which  it  is  written,  then  trans- 
posing it  into  another  key.  Such  an  effort 
brings  the  aspirant  near  the  heights  of 
musicianly  attainments. 
116 


How  to  Study  Music 

The  highest  degree  of  musicianship,  as  Schu- 
mann declares,  is  to  be  able,  on  the  first  hear- 
ing of  a  complicated  orchestral  work,  to  see 
it  in  bodily  score  with  the  inner  eye.  Few  can 
do  this,  but  the  ranks  of  those  who  can  would 
greatly  increase  if  more  students  were  given 
royally  to  music. 

Sight-reading  is  another  test  of  musicianship. 
Although  a  composition  is  never  thoroughly 
part  of  the  performer's  consciousness  until  it 
has  been  memorized,  that  pianist  is  no  musician 
who  can  not  intelligently  read  at  sight  any 
piece  not  beyond  his  technical  skill.  Unless 
a  page  of  notes  can  be  read  as  easily  as  a  page 
of  words,  music  is  poorly  learned.  Therefore, 
practise  sight-reading  early  and  often. 

More  can  be  accomplished  in  one  hour  by 
giving  one's  self  royally  to  music  than  by 
months  of  study  with  a  wandering  mind. 
Every  one  can  not  attain  the  achievements  of 
genius,  but  every  one  who  studies  music  faith- 
fully can  make  it  a  useful  and  enduring  pos- 
session, as  far  as  permitted  to  advance  in  it. 
Less  time  need  be  consumed,  less  money  ex- 
\\7 


For  My  M\isicat]  Friend 

pended,  and  better  results  will  be  gained  by 
those  who  give  themselves  royally  to  the  study 
of  music  than  by  those  who  dawdle  over  it. 

"Give  yourself  royally"  while  you  can  study. 
You  have  ears  to  hear,  let  them  hear.  They 
will  bear  to  your  inner  being  the  glorious  mes- 
sage of  the  divine  art,  and  ceasing  to  be  the 
exclusive  art  mistaken  methods  of  teaching 
and  study  have  condemned  it  to  be,  music  will 
fulfill  its  rightful  mission  in  the  world,  beau- 
tifying the  lives  of  the  multitude. 


ns 


X 

When  and  How  to  Begin 

Many  a  mother  is  just  now  seriously  con- 
sidering whether  a  certain  toddler  of  hers  shall 
begin  piano  lessons.  Fancied  signs  of  musical 
talent  have  perhaps  aroused  her.  The  little  one 
may  have  caught  a  few  melodies  and  sung  them 
prettily,  or  have  manifested  a  desire  to  make 
a  plaything  of  the  dazzling  keyboard  of  the 
new  piano  in  the  drawing-room.  Perchance  the 
object  of  her  anxiety  is  a  girl,  and  it  seems  a 
foregone  conclusion  that  every  girl  in  a  posi- 
tion for  social  ambition  must  play  the  piano. 

A  musical  friend,  whose  opinion  she  values, 
has  told  her  the  lessons  cannot  begin  too  soon. 
Another,  with  apparently  quite  as  good  judg- 
ment, declares  that  too  early  a  start  involves 
danger,  including  injury  to  health  and  the 
stifling  of  musical  sentiment. 

Counsels  so  conflicting  bewilder  the  conscien- 

M9 


For  My  Musica.1  Friend 

tioiis  mother.  She  recalls,  with  a  shiver,  the 
monotonous  practising  on  her  next-door  neigh- 
bor's piano  that  made  her  so  nervous  last  sea- 
son, and  her  bewilderment  increases.  It  is 
hard  for  her  to  believe  that  such  thrumming — 
for  thrumming  it  was,  and  not  music — can  be 
pleasant  or  profitable  to  any  one.  Intuitively 
she  has  approached  a  truth. 

Until  a  beautiful  tone  can  be  evoked  from 
the  piano  key,  in  the  name  of  all  beauty,  have 
the  instrument  left  severely  alone.  It  is  not 
the  sole  means  of  music-making. 

An  important  cpestion  to  settle  before  begin- 
ning piano  lessons  concerns  the  development 
of  the  child's  hands.  The  human  hand  is  as 
different  in  different  individuals  as  are  all 
other  seemingly  similar  products  of  creation. 
One  child  has  much  greater  native  flexibility 
of  fingers  and  wrists  than  another,  and  will 
earlier  gain  the  necessary  muscular  develop- 
ment to  profit  by  training.  Moreover,  the 
lightness  or  heaviness  of  touch  of  the  piano  to 
be  used  must  be  considered.  The  piano  should 
be  a  good  one.  and  in  perfect  tune. 
120 


When  atnd  How  to  Begin 

A  calm,  even,  melodious  legato  is  the  sure 
foundation  for  a  fine  touch.  It  is  far  easier 
to  impart  this  to  a  child  who  has  had  no  oppor- 
tunity to  stumble  into  bad  habits.  No  child 
should  be  started  on  regular  piano  lessons  until 
all  the  conditions  are  favorable  for  legato- 
playing.     A  very  simple  test  may  be  applied : 

Seat  the  child  before  the  middle  of  the  key- 
board, in  an  unconstrained  position,  with  the 
feet  resting  on  a  footstool.  Place  the  thumb 
of  the  right  hand  directly  over  middle  C,  to 
the  length  of  the  nail,  and  the  other  fingers,  so 
curved  that  the  fleshy  part  of  the  tips  inclines 
to  the  keys,  over  the  next  white  keys  higher. 
See  that  the  knuckles  and  wrists  are  on  a  level 
with  the  back  of  the  hand,  and  that  the  muscles 
of  hand  and  arm  are  so  relaxed  as  to  prevent 
stiffness.  Have  the  thumb  strike  C,  and  hold 
it  while  the  other  fingers  in  turn  strike  the  keys 
beneath  them  so  that  each  tone  is  prolonged 
until  the  next  key  is  attacked,  returning  in  the 
same  way.  Have  the  experiment  repeated  with 
the  left  hand,  an  octave  lower,  the  thumb 
holding  G,  and  the  other  fingers  striking  the 
121 


For  My  Mxisical  Friend 

lower  notes,  first  down  and  then  up.  Not  until 
it  is  possible  to  keep  the  thumbs  firmly  at  their 
posts  and  produce  fairly  clear,  ringing  tones 
with  the  other  fingers,  need  piano  lessons  be 
considered,  whether  the  child  be  five,  six,  or 
seven  years  old. 

Meanwhile  the  musical  intelligence  need  not 
remain  unawakened.  Good  music,  of  a  kind 
that  can  appeal  to  the  young  mind,  may  sur- 
round the  child.  It  may  learn  to  sing  simple 
and  pure  melodies,  to  distinguish  a  major  from 
a  minor  key,  and  to  realize  the  relative  value 
of  tones.  The  notes,  too,  may  be  learned  from 
the  printed  page,  and  familiarity  gained  with 
their  various  sounds. 

It  is  not  a  bad  idea  to  have  the  first  instru- 
mental attempt  made  on  some  musical  instru- 
ment of  lesser  importance.  For  this  purpose 
the  guitar  would  be  my  choice,  because  it  was 
my  own  first  love,  and  served  as  my  sole  means 
of  expression  in  instrumental  music  during  my 
fifth  and  sixth  years.  To  it  I  owe  a  vast  deal 
in  the  way  of  preliminary  tone-culture.  In 
learning  to  tune  the   guitar   alone — and   this 

Ml 


When  and  How  to  Begin 

should  be  carefully  directed — the  ear  becomes 
very  sensitive. 

By  the  time  a  pupil  so  prepared  is  ready  for 
the  piano  his  mental  musical  furniture  will  not 
be  absolutely  beggarly.  The  next  step  is  to 
provide  a  teacher  who  will  impart  to  instruc- 
tion the  freshness  of  life,  and  not  be  content 
with  dry  mechanism. 

It  becomes  interesting  to  the  pupil  to  heed 
the  necessary  laws  of  mechanism  when  shown 
that  rough,  harsh,  or  thin  tones  are  caused  by 
a  faulty  position  of  the  hands,  a  wrong  attack 
or  fingering.  As  soon  as  a  round,  sonorous 
tone  can  be  produced,  and  pitch,  volume, 
quality,  and  value  in  single  notes  appreciated, 
double  notes  and  cliords  may  be  attacked.  The 
pupil  should  be  taught  how  chords  and  scales 
are  made,  the  relations  of  intervals,  and  the 
differences  between  major  and  minor,  diatonic 
and  chromatic,  etc. 

Every  exercise  should    be    transposed  into 

other  keys,  and  written  down  as  well  as  played 

from    memory.     The    habit  of  writing    notes 

greatly    stimulates    the     musical     intelligence. 

123 


For  My  M\isica.l  Friend 

There  is  nothing  more  vahieless  than  mechan- 
ical practice  in  which  the  mind  has  no  part. 
Faults  in  keeping  time,  for  instance,  are  not 
so  much  the  result  of  lack  of  talent  as  of  lack 
of  attention. 

Deeply  rooted  in  the  human  breast  is  a  sense 
of  rhythm.  Were  this  gift,  which  is  pure  sen- 
sation, used  as  a  ground-work  on  which  to 
build  a  discriminating  sense  of  art  rhythm, 
time-keeping  would  afford  comparatively  little 
trouble.  On  the  contrary,  the  native  instincts 
are  too  often  disturbed  in  the  process  of  train- 
ing, and  by  nothing  more  sadly  than  the  per- 
nicious habit  of  continual  counting  aloud,  which 
makes  the  pupil  a  slavish  dependent.  Time 
should  be  beaten,  the  value  of  the  notes  and 
rests  counted,  and  the  phrasing  analyzed  before 
beginning  to  play  an  exercise  or  a  piece.  Dur- 
ing the  performance  the  pulsation  within  should 
be  relied  on  as  far  as  possible.  Occasional 
counting  aloud  may  be  found  necessary,  but 
the  pianist  whose  mind  is  never  free  from  the 
numerical  count  cannot  attain  ease,  fluency, 
nor  musical  tone, 

J24 


When  a-nd  How  to  Begin 

Scales,  chords,  and  finger  exercises  should 
be  regarded  merely  as  fragments  of  the  mate- 
rials that  go  to  make  music,  and  very  early  the 
pupil  should  be  given  beautiful  melodious  pieces 
in  which  the  figures  and  form.s  with  which  he 
has  become  familiar  are  introduced.  It  is  bet- 
ter to  play  easy  pieces  well  than  harder  ones 
poorly.  The  various  rhythms,  the  theme,  sen- 
tences, and  periods,  should  be  analyzed,  and  the 
pupil  taught  to  construct  little  melodies  for 
himself  on  a  similar  plan.  Facts  in  the  his- 
tory of  music  should  be  judiciously  interspersed 
with  rudimentary  teaching,  and  the  pupil  led 
gradually  to  enter  heartily  into  this  delightful 
and  useful  study.  Sight-reading  should  be  cul- 
tivated, and  as  far  as  possible  everything  com- 
mitted to  memory. 

Many  teachers  are  afraid  of  sight-reading 
and  memorizing,  supposing  they  lead  to  bad 
habits.  No  danger  will  be  found,  however, 
if  the  pupil  has  mastered  each  degree  of  pro- 
gress before  entering  on  the  next.  Memoriz- 
ing understandingly  is  not  learning  by  rote, 

\25 


For  My  Musicak.!  Friend 

nor  is  intelligent  reading  like  scrambling 
through  notes. 

During  the  first  weeks  of  instruction  it  is 
wise  to  have  the  pupil  do  no  practising  with- 
out the  teacher.  A  very  good  plan  is  to  have 
the  rudiments  taught  in  classes  of  four,  with 
half-hour  lessons,  not  less  than  three  times 
each  week.  Young  pupils  practising  alone 
should  not  be  permitted  to  sit  at  the  piano  more 
than  fifteen  minutes  at  a  time.  This  may  be 
repeated  as  often  as  seems  desirable  in  each 
case.  Later,  the  time  for  practise  may  be  half 
an  hour,  repeated  twice  a  day,  or  oftener.  One 
hour  discreetly  employed  will  lead  to  far  more 
rapid  and  satisfactory  progress  than  several 
ihours  of  aimless  practising.  The  use  of  the 
pedal  is  an  essential  part  of  a  pianist's  work, 
but  judgment  alone  can  decide  when  to  begin  it. 

A  musical  education  in  the  lines  indicated 
quickens  the  perceptions,  strengthens  the  mem- 
ory, cultivates  order  and  promptness,  and  dis- 
ciplines, refines,  and  ennobles  the  character.  It 
demands  less  time  than  a  thoughtless  method. 
It  is  solid  as  far  as  it  goes,  and  early  enables 
\26 


When  aLnd  How  to  Begin 

the  pupil  to  become  independent  of  the  teacher. 
It  is  available  to  all,  and  affords  a  splendid 
foundation  for  those  favored  ones  whose  genius 
leads  them  to  lofty  heights.  Instead  of  flood- 
ing society  with  half-fledged  artists  who  bore 
themselves  and  others  with  the  difficult  com- 
l^ositions  in  which  they  have  been  painfully 
drilled,  it  will  provide  musicianly  amateurs  who 
make  music  a  joy  and  inspiration  in  family  and 
social  life.  It  will  enable  young  people  to  en- 
joy four-hand  or  other  ensemble  playing,  and 
to  read  promptly,  and  if  necessary  transpose 
into  another  key,  a  simple  accompaniment.  It 
will  lead  to  the  appreciation  of  the  grandest 
performances  of  artists.  It  will  prove  a  last- 
ing possession. 


127 


CARl.   GARTNER 


XI 

My  LaLdy  aLnd  Her  Piano 

We  Americans  are  proverbially  extravagant 
and  wasteful.  In  our  haste  to  grasp  the  rich 
inheritance  that  comes  to  us  from  many  lands, 
we  are  too  apt  to  appropriate  the  outer  form 
alone,  while  the  inner  substance  remams  un- 
heeded. 

This  is  what  is  amiss  with  the  piano  training 
of  our  girls.  Parents,  teachers  and  pupils  too 
often  demand  speedy  display  rather  than  genu- 
ine progress.  There  is  a  deplorable  lack  of  re- 
gard for  fundamental  principles.  The  fingers 
are  frequently  induced  to  admirable  skill,  while 
the  mind  is  not  disciplined  to  understand  what 
they  produce. 

In  a  home  of  her  own,   amid   the   serious 

problems  of  life,  my  lady  soon  loses  what  was 

but  the  idle  accomplishment  of  her  girlhood, 

a  mere  surface  decoration,  wholly  incidental 

\29 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

and  accidental  to  life's  real  substance.  The 
superb  piano  which  has  its  place  among  her 
choice  articles  of  furniture,  stands  for  the  most 
part  unused,  except  by  chance  guests.  My  lady 
has  tired  of  the  difficult  pieces  that  formed  her 
repertoire  when  working  under  a  teacher,  and 
unless  she  can  continue  her  lessons  she  is  un- 
able to  learn  new  ones. 

This  is  not  as  it  should  be.  Music  is  pecul- 
iarly adapted  to  create  a  refined  home  at- 
mosphere. No  single  instrument  is  so  well 
fitted  to  aid  in  the  interpretation  of  music  as 
the  piano,  and  no  one  is  so  well  adapted  to 
be  the  controlling  spirit  of  this  as  my  lady,  the 
high-priestess  of  the  home. 

Unfortunately,  what  was  called  her  musical 
education  may  have  stifled  the  germ  of  musical 
feeling  that  dwells  in  every  healthy  human 
breast.  If  she  has  succeeded  in  translating  the 
notes  and  signs  in  which  a  musical  composer's 
ideas  lie  concealed,  it  has  been  rather  from  in- 
stinct than  from  that  direct  method  of  education 
which  intellectualizes  native  instincts  and  de- 
velops God-given  endowments. 

J  30 


My  Lady  p^nd  Her  Piano 

Great  as  are  the  improvements  apparent  in 
current  methods  of  technical  instruction,  there 
is  a  lamentable  tendency  to  forget  that 
technique  is  but  a  vessel  in  which  to  convey  an 
adequate  expression  of  the  tone-language. 
Without  thought  and  feeling,  technique  is  a 
mere  mechanism,  an  outward  form  which  must 
soon  perish  when  devoid  of  the  spirit's  inner 
grace. 

In  no  study  is  a  pupil  permitted  to  remain 
so  long  dependent  on  a  teacher  as  in  music. 
The  girl  would  be  considered  poorly  educated 
who,  after  devoting  several  years  to  the  study 
of  some  language  of  words,  failed  to  compre- 
hend the  meaning  of  the  pages  she  had  learned 
to  read  aloud,  and  could  not  read  a  single  new 
page  nt  sight.  Yet  this  is  the  position  of 
countless  piano  pupils. 

As  speech  is  the  vehicle  of  the  literature  of 
defined  ideas,  so  music,  the  tone-language,  is 
that  of  the  literature  of  undefined  emotions 
and  aspirations.  Able  teachers  of  the  litera- 
ture of  defined  ideas  show  how  this  literature 
has  grown,  of  what  it  is  compounded,  how  its 
J3I 


For  My  MMsicatl  Friend 

utterances  touch  universal  experiences,  how 
a  certain  author  represents  a  period,  a  class, 
a  tendency,  and  how  his  own  personality  is  re- 
vealed. 

The  instructor  in  music  should  teach  in  the 
same  way.  Of  his  pupils  it  should  not  be  said 
that  hearing,  they  hear  not;  neither  do  they 
understand. 

Music  is  the  language  of  the  emotions,  but 
these  must  be  regulated  by  the  intelligence  be- 
fore they  can  attain  suitable  expression.  It 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  this  language  has  its 
alphabet,  its  grammar,  its  philosophy.  Every 
musical  composition  is  composed  of  phrases, 
sections  and  periods,  and  has  a  text  called  a 
motive.  The  ear  should  be  disciplined  to  fol- 
low this  motive  through  all  its  unfoldings. 

Orderly  mental  habits  and  musicianly  dis- 
crimination should  be  cultivated  in  the  girl 
who  studies  the  piano.  While  schooling  her 
fingers  to  flexibility  and  strength,  she  should 
be  learning  to  produce  beautiful  tones,  and 
to  understand  the  tone-language.  She  should 
be  able  to  write,  as  well  as  read  or  play  music. 
132 


My  La^dy  and  Her  Pia-no 

To  make  music  valuable  in  the  home,  the 
height  of  technical  skill  need  not  be  sought. 
It  is  better  to  play  easy  pieces  with  the  under- 
standing of  a  musician  than  to  stumble  igno- 
rantly  through  difficult  ones. 

Having  been  rightly  educated  herself,  my 
lady  will  proceed  courageously  to  utilize  in  her 
home  an  attainment  which  has  become  part  of 
herself.  She  will  never  lose  an  opportunity  to 
play  good  four-hand  music  with  those  whose 
taste  and  skill  are  equal  to  her  own.  She  will 
take  special  pleasure  in  the  performance  of 
well  written  four-hand  arrangements  of  the 
world's  great  symphonies  and  overtures,  for 
by  gaining  familiarity  with  them  in  this  way 
she  will  learn  to  appreciate  them  wdien  she 
hears  them  interpreted  by  the  orchestra.  She 
will  take  occasion  to  accompany  a  good  voice, 
or  a  skillful  performer  on  some  other  instru- 
ment when  it  is  possible,  and  will  make  her- 
self especially  valuable  to  the  singer  by  being 
able  to  transpose  into  other  keys  any  simple 
page  of  music. 

All  thinking  people,  both  men  and  wo- 
\33 


For  My  MusicBk.!  Friend 

men,  approve  of  fostering  music  in  the  home. 
Precisely  as  it  is  a  power  in  the  world  at  large, 
so  it  is  a  power  in  the  family.  Husband  and 
wife  are  drawn  into  a  closer,  tenderer  union 
when  bound  together  by  a  common  love  of 
music.  Children  grow  up  in  a  pure,  joyous 
atmosphere  where  music  is.  If  rightly  grasped 
it  drives  all  ugliness  and  cross-grained  feel- 
ings from  the  heart.  As  Karl  Merz,  an  ear- 
nest, scholarly  musician,  has  said :  "Ill-nature 
and  music  cannot  exist  together,  for  the  heart 
that  comes  under  the  spell  of  good  music  is 
thereby  made  ready  for  good  deeds." 

Martin  Luther  called  music  one  of  the  great- 
est gifts  of  the  Creator,  and  assigned  to  it  the 
next  place  to  divinity.  "It  sets  the  soul  at 
rest  and  places  it  in  a  most  happy  mood,"  said 
he,  and  emphatically  declared  that  the  demons  of 
evil  and  unrest  were  quickly  banished  by  music. 
He  believed  the  seeds  of  many  virtues  to  ex- 
ist in  the  souls  of  those  who  love  music,  but 
those  who  were  not  moved  by  it  were  in  his 
estimation  little  better  than  sticks  and  stones. 

My  lady  should  read,  mark,  learn  and  in- 

134 


My  Lady  atrvd  Her  Piano 

wardly  digest  these  facts.  She  should  call  up 
the  power  of  music  when  she  is  lonely,  and  rest- 
less and  sad.  She  would  find  all  the  evil  spirits 
that  assail  her  driven  into  retirement  by  the 
forces  the  divine  art  is  capable  of  bringing 
about  her.  vSlie  will  find  the  language  of 
music  one  through  the  medium  of  which  her 
soul  may  pour  out  its  highest,  noblest  aspira- 
tions. Through  the  communion  to  which 
music  may  lead  her,  she  will  gain  strength  for 
her  daily  cares  and  responsibilities,  and  fresh 
zest  for  her  daily  joys. 

The  children  of  a  woman  who  possesses  the 
true  benefits  of  music  will  be  started  and  guided 
aright  in  their  musical  education  and  in  life. 
Her  home  will  be  in  the  loftiest  sense  a  happy 
one.  Even  when  lamed  by  the  infirmities  of 
old  age  or  of  disease  she  can  still  hear — with 
the  inner,  if  not  with  the  outer  ear — understand 
and  remember. 


J  35 


XII 

TiiTve-Keeping  in  M\isic 

"  Keep  time.    How  sour  sweet  music  is  when  time  is  broke,  and  no 
proportion  kept !" — Shakespeake. 

There  is  as  much  ugliness  in  false  time  as 
in  false  tone.  The  wonder  is  that  every  one 
who  has  ears  to  hear  does  not  recognize  the 
fact.  *Tlay  in  time,"  says  Robert  Schumann. 
"The  playing  of  many  virtuosos  is  like  the  gait 
of  a  drunkard.  Make  not  such  your  models  \" 
Too  many  players,  and  singers  as  well,  need 
to  be  reminded  of  this  injunction. 

What  is  time-keeping  in  music  ?  What  does 
it  involve? 

Time-keeping  in  music  is  the  act  of  playing 
or  singing  musical  notes  in  obedience  to  a 
regularly-recurring  beat,  granting  each  note 
its  proper  duration  and  making  the  beat  accord 
with  a  defined  rate  of  speed.  It  involves  a 
knowledge  of  rhythm,  metre,  measure  and 
137 


For  My  Musica.1  Friend 

movement,  combined  with  strongly  developed 
powers  of  mental  concentration.  Indeed,  the 
key  to  success  in  time-keeping,  as  in  every- 
thing else  in  music,  lies  in  mental  concentration 
w^hich,  although  in  its  fullest  sense  a  peculiar 
gift  of  genius,  may  be  cultivated  to  a  great 
extent  by  any  one  capable  of  giving  to  music 
time,  strength  and  devotion. 

Time,  known  as  the  soul  of  music,  imparts 
to  music  its  character.  The  disregard  of  it 
makes  a  succession  of  musical  sounds  as  mean- 
ingless as  a  jumble  of  words  without  indwell- 
ing sense.  Within  itself  it  combines  rhythm, 
metre  and  movement. 

Rhythm,  the  essential  force  of  whatever 
lives,  moves  and  has  a  being,  has  been  called 
the  principle  of  order  in  the  magic  world  of 
tones.  Without  it  the  simplest  musical  idea 
could  not  be  expressed.  With  it  a  mass  of 
tones  may  be  converted  into  a  vehicle  to  con- 
vey to  the  sympathetic  interpreter  or  listener 
the  vision  of  genius.  Its  function  is  to  prevent 
the  incoherence  pertaining  to  a  lack  of  dis- 
criminating control  in  musical  motion. 

J38 


Time-Keeping  in  Mxisic 

Metre  prescribes  the  number  and  nature  of 
the  beats  within  a  measure — that  is,  between 
two  perpendicular  bars  on  the  staff.  It  is 
specified  by  a  defined  signature  as  two- fourths, 
three-fourths,  six-eighths,  etc.,  and  determines 
whether  the  time  be  dual  or  triple.  Its  func- 
tion is  to  dictate  the  value  of  the  measure. 

Movement,  usually  called  tempo,  declares  the 
degree  of  slowness  or  swiftness  with  which  a 
piece,  or  a  passage,  is  to  be  executed.  Its  func- 
tion is  both  to  regulate  the  speed  and  to  de- 
mand strict  adherence  to  that  speed.  The 
player,  or  singer,  may  choose  a  correct  tempo, 
and  yet  by  neglecting  to  adhere  to  it  fail  to 
keep  time. 

Rhythm  has  been  aptly  called  audible  sym- 
metry. As  the  one  model  music  finds  in 
nature,  its  measured  beat,  like  the  pulse  of  life, 
throbs  through  all  animate  creation.  In- 
herent in  every  human  breast  is  that  sense  of 
rhythm  which  is  dependent  on  the  agitations 
of  the  physical  forces  set  in  play  by  the  emo- 
tions. 

In  primitive  man  this  physical  sense  of 
J  39 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

rhythm  found  vent  in  the  dance,  and  in  music 
suited  to  accompany  it.  As  a  complex  civiH- 
zation  began  to  produce  complex  emo- 
tions, an  unbroken  chain  of  regularly  re- 
curring accents  ceased  to  afford  satisfaction, 
and  the  inventive  genius  of  man  devised  new 
musical  forms  to  express  new  emotions.  Thus 
sprang  into  being  various  art-rhythms. 

To  the  instinctive  sense  of  rhythm  was  added 
that  discriminating  sense  which  is  born  of  the 
united  emotional  and  intellectual  being.  It  had 
become  apparent  that  if  the  impulses,  however 
warm  and  active  they  might  be,  were  not  con- 
trolled by  reason,  they  were  apt  to  become 
caricatures  of  our  noblest  and  best  feelings. 

Well  known  as  these  facts  are  there  still  may 
be  found  both  instrumentalists  and  vocalists 
who  transgress  into  the  region  of  the  ludicrous 
in  their  efforts  to  express  often  genuine  feelmgs 
by  out-of-time  playing  and  singing,  with  vio- 
lent accents  in  the  most  inappropriate  places. 
This  uncurbed  sentimentaiism  is  neither 
scholarly  nor  artistic. 

On  the  other  hand,   intellectual  expression 

HO 


Time-Keeping  in  Music 

without  spontaneity  is  most  unsatisfactory. 
Well-controlled,  well-balanced  emotions,  com- 
bined with  well-developed,  well-guided  under- 
standing, are  the  essentials  for  one  who  would 
be  thoroughly  musicianly.  Such  a  person  has 
little  difficulty  in  observing  time. 

Many  music  students  neglect  time-keeping 
because  they  attempt  pieces  whose  technical 
difficulties  they  are  not  advanced  enough  to 
master.  They  trip  in  a  dozen  little  places,  slow 
up  in  the  hard  passages  and  hurry  in  the  easy 
ones.  They  pay  little  heed  to  phrasing,  and 
wholly  lose  the  rhythmic  plan  of  the  composi- 
tion. Many  pianists,  in  especial,  fail  to  realize 
the  rhj'thmic  beat  through  the  mistaken  habit 
of  relying  on  the  metronome,  or  on  the  audible 
count  of  the  teacher. 

It  may  truthfully  be  said  that  you  cannot 
make  a  musician  of  a  child  by  having  a  musician 
shoulder  that  child's  responsibilities.  The 
wise  teacher  is  one  whose  pupils  are  taught  to 
surmount  their  own  obstacles.  In  order  to  ac- 
complish good  work  students  of  music  should 


Hi 


For  My  MusIcslI  Friend 

be  true  to  their  .own  instincts,  which,  if  trusted, 
are  very  Hkely  to  lead  in  the  right  direction. 

How  shall  a  discriminating  sense  of  rhythm 
and  a  correct  regard  for  time-keeping  be  culti- 
vated? Certainly  not  by  the  continuous  use 
of  the  metronome.  The  click  of  this  little 
mechanical  time-keeper  serves  admirably  to 
mark  the  tempo,  but  if  slavishly  depended  on 
will  make  a  slave  of  mechanism  rather  than  a 
musician.  Nor  can  the  desired  result  be  gained 
through  continual  counting  aloud  by  either 
teacher  or  pupil.  What  may  justly  be  called 
the  fatal  and  pernicious  count-habit  leaves  in 
the  mind  a  more  enduring  impression  of  the 
counting  than  of  the  tonal  or  rhythmic  plan, 
and  this  counting  is  likely  to  become  as  un- 
steady as  the  playing. 

The  best  preparation  for  time-keeping  is  a 
quickened  sense  of  rhythm,  and  a  knowledge 
of  the  value  of  notes.  Too  often  the  native 
instincts  are  dulled  by  stupid  work,  instead  of 
being  used  as  a  solid  foundation  on  which  to 
build. 

In  the  youngest  music  students  the  natural 
J42 


Time-Keeping  in  Music 

throb  of  rhythmic  pulsation  may  be  develoi>ed 
by  the  practise  of  beating  and  counting  time 
away  from  any  instrument.  If  a  vivid  sense 
of  the  phrasing,  rhythm  and  tempo  of  a  com- 
position be  gained  before  attempting  to  inter- 
pret it  with  instrument  or  voice,  the  time  will 
keep  itself. 

So  much  for  time  strictness.  Is  there  no 
such  thing  as  time  freedom  ?  To  be  sure  there 
is.  "Time  freedom,"  says  Dr.  Marx,  the  Ger- 
man theorist,  "is  a  law  of  nature,  based  on  the 
wavelike  pulsion  of  the  emotions."  The  mis- 
take is  to  confound  carelessness  and  lawless- 
ness with  artistic  time  freedom.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  be  capable  of  keeping  strict  time  before 
the  rate  of  speed  be  hastened  or  slackened  as 
intelligent  discrimination  dictates.  It  is  equally 
important  to  be  capable  of  returning  at  the 
right  moment  to  the  normal  tempo.  Such  time ' 
freedom  is  the  result  of  knowledge  aiid  mas- 
terly control,  which  a  shuffling,  out-of-time  per- 
formances betokens  ignorance  and  incapacity. 

Play  and  sing  m  time.     Take  no  unwarrant- 
able liberties  with    the    creations    of    genius. 

U3 


For  My  MusicaLl  Friend 

Analyze  thoroughly  every  composition  you 
would  interpret,  and  you  will  find  abundant 
direct  and  indirect  indications  for  all  allowable 
freedom. 


144 


-fCaa^^    ^ie^^ 


XIII 

M\isic  as  Medicine 

One  of  the  latest  items  in  the  history  of 
music  as  medicine  concerns  a  delightful  bower 
that  has  recently  been  fitted  up  in  a  certain 
great  city,  where  fair  sufferers  may  be  cured 
of  insomnia,  nervous  prostration  and  similar 
disorders  by  melodious  strains  from  piano, 
harp,  mandolin  or  other  instruments.  Music 
is  ordered  to  suit  each  case,  and  all  the  sur- 
roundings are  of  the  most  soothing  and  charm- 
ing nature.  Even  if  the  cost  of  treatment  be 
necessarily  high,  the  guardian  spirits  of  the 
bower  are  likely  to  minister  to  a  large  number 
of  grateful  patients.  If  "music  hath  charms 
to  soothe  the  savage  breast,"  it  surely  may 
afiford  relief  for  ennui,  weariness  or  pain. 

There  are  those  who  speak  lightly  of  the 
modern  attempt  to  utilize  music  in  the  domain 
of  curative  medicine,  calling  it  a  mere  fash- 
US 


For  My  M\isica.l  Friend 

ionable  fad.  What  though  it  be  a  fad,  it  is  a 
harmless  and  refined  one.  Moreover,  it  is 
based  on  a  profound  truth,  which  has  gained 
some  form  of  expression  wherever  the  history 
of  humanity  may  be  traced. 

Even  barbarous  and  semi-civiHzed  tribes 
paid  tribute  to  the  power  of  music  over  the 
mind  and  through  this  over  the  body.  Their 
medicine  men  banished  the  evil  spirits,  to  whose 
malign  influence  all  disease  wa^  attributed, 
with  the  aid  of  music.  Our  own  North  Amer- 
ican Indians  furnish  numerous  examples  of 
this. 

When  w^e  refer  to  ancient  civilizations  we 
find  music  playing  an  important  role  as  a  re- 
ligious, educational  and  therapeutic  force. 
The  Egyptian  priests  combined  music,  medi- 
cine and  religious  mysteries,  using  one  and  all 
for  the  healing  of  spiritual,  intellectual  and 
physical  ills.  Poetry,  legendary  lore  and 
learned  philosophical  treatises  alike  testify  to 
the  high  estimate  the  Greeks  placed  on  music 
as  a  means  of  discipline  and  healing. 

Apollo,  the  divine  musician,  is  called  the 
J46 


Mvisic  Bts  Medicine 

healer.  Every  school  child  knows  how  Or- 
pheus tamed  wild  beasts,  moved  rocks  and 
trees,  even  rescued  his  beloved  wife  from  the 
realm  of  the  shades  through  the  persuasive 
strains  of  his  lyre  and  of  his  voice.  Chiron, 
wisest  of  the  Centaurs,  instructed  by  Apollo 
himself,  used  music  as  a  curative  means.  At 
his  school  Hercules  studied  music,  medicine 
and  justice.  Among  his  pupils,  too,  was 
^sculapius,  the  skilled  physician,  who  is  said 
to  have  cured  deafness  by  the  sound  of  the 
trumpet,  leading  one  to  wonder  if  he  were  not 
the  original  inventor  of  the  ear-trumpet,  or 
perchance  of  the  speaking  trumpet. 

In  more  than  fifty  places  the  power  of  music 
is  mentioned  in  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey. 
Achilles  and  Paris  were  both  performers  on  the 
lyre.  Music  was  deemed  indispensable  to 
courage  and  to  morals.  Homer  tells,  too,  how 
the  plague,  at  the  siege  of  Troy,  was  forced 
to  cease  at  the  sound  of  music.  Some  centuries 
later,  Thaletas,  a  famous  lyric  poet,  was  noted 
for  driving  away  pestilence  with  the  sweet 
tones  of  his  lyre  and  song.  Still  later,  Democ- 
U7 


For  My  M\isical  Friend 

ritus  claimed  flute  music  as  a  specific  for  a 
viper  bite.  Even  in  the  second  century  of  our 
era,  Galen,  the  Father  of  Medicine,  most  of 
whose  theories  and  practices  prevailed  upward 
of  a  thousand  years,  seriously  recommended 
playing  the  flute  on  the  suffering  part — whether 
to  divert  the  mind  or  on  the  principle  of  a 
medicated  vapor  bath,  deponent  sayeth  not. 

Plato  maintained  that  music  must  lead  to  a 
love  of  the  beautiful  in  all  things,  and  declared 
that  musical  education  should  be  compulsory. 
Youth  should  be  trained  in  both  gymnastics 
and  music,  he  said.  Exclusive  devotion  to  the 
first  produced  harshness  and  ferocity,  while  un- 
due devotion  to  the  last  produced  effeminacy. 
For  the  health  of  soul  and  body  the  two  should 
be  combined,  but  music  should  be  placed  first. 
It  might  not  be  amiss  for  our  modern  college 
athletes  to  consider  this  statement.  Plutarch, 
in  his  most  delightful  treatise  on  music,  spoke 
of  the  divine  art  as  calculated  to  form  and 
compose  the  minds  of  youth  to  what  was  de- 
cent, sober  and  virtuous.  He  tells  how  Aris- 
toxenus  alleged  that  music  was  introduced  at 

U8 


Music  ats  Medicine 

banquets  for  the  reason  that  as  wine,  intem- 
perately  drunk,  weakens  both  body  and  mind, 
so  music,  by  its  harmonious  order  and  sym- 
metry, assuages  and  reduces  them  to  their  for- 
mer constitution. 

Among  the  Hebrews  the  prophets  and  seers 
either  made  music  themselves,  or  were  at- 
tended by  players  on  the  psaltery,  timbrel,  pipe 
or  harp.  Elisha  sent  for  a  minstrel  to  tran- 
quilize  his  mind,  and  while  he  hearkened  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  came  upon  him.  The  sons 
of  Asaph  prophesied  to  the  sound  of  the  harp. 
We  are  all  familiar  with  the  story  of  the  sweet 
singer  of  Israel,  and  how  with  his  wonderful 
skill  on  the  harp  he  brought  relief  to  the  ago- 
nized soul  of  distracted  Saul. 

Luther,  in  his  day,  commended  music  as  a 
specially  powerful  means  of  warfare  against 
the  devil  and  his  hosts,  and  Shakespeare  has 
much  to  say  in  its  behalf  as  a  restorative  force. 
King  Lear  is  relieved  of  his  madness  by  sweet 
music,  w^hich  increases  in  volume  at  the  proper 
place.  Prospero,  in  the  "Tempest,"  calls  a 
solemn  air  the  best  comforter  to  an  unsettled 
149 


For  My  MusiceLl  Friend 

fancy,  while  Ferdinand,  in  the  same  drama, 
tells  of  music  that  stole  to  him  over  the  waters, 
allaying  both  his  passion  and  his  fury.  Num- 
berless instances  of  a  similar  nature  might  be 
quoted. 

During  the  last  century  music  was  not  in- 
frequently employed  by  physicians,  including 
Dr.  Mitchell,  of  Brighthelmstone,  and  the 
famous  M.  Buretti,  as  a  palliative  for  certain 
nervous  diseases.  The  Philosophical  Maga- 
zine for  May,  1806,  states  that  several  of  the 
medical  literati  of  the  Continent  were  then  en- 
gaged in  making  inquiries  and  experiments 
on  the  subject  of  the  influence  of  music  on 
those  laboring  under  mental  and  other  dis- 
orders. 

The  recent  revival  of  the  music  cure  seems 
to  be  pretty  widespread,  and  the  London  Lancet 
has  referred  to  it  on  various  occasions.  In  its 
pages  it  is  recorded  that  a  prominent  Russian 
physician.  Dr.  Beschinsky,  cured  a  little 
girl  who  was  subject  to  nightmare  and  sleep- 
lessness and  on  whom  sundry  recognized  treat- 
ments had  been  tried  in  vain,  by  having  the 
J50 


Music  as  Medicine 

child's  mother  play  on  the  piano  Chopin's  slow 
waltz  in  A  minor,  as  something  tender  and 
soothing.  Similar  treatment  was  applied  to 
a  case  of  the  same  kind,  with  equal  success, 
by  a  certain  Dr.  Berberoff.  The  Lancet  does 
not  state  whether  he  prescribed  Chopin.  One 
commentator  suggests  that  a  simple  lullaby 
sung  by  the  mother  would  bring  sleep  to  the 
child  as  effectually  as  Apollo's  lyre. 

Music  has  been  tried  as  a  hypnotic  in  the  Lon- 
don Temperance  Hospital  with  a  fair  measure 
of  success.  The  system  of  bringing  it  into  the 
sphere  of  practical  therapeutics  is  also  being 
introduced  into  various  French  hospitals;  but 
the  most  notable  step  yet  taken  is  the  work  of 
the  London  Guild  of  St.  Cecilia,  under  the 
energetic  and  discriminating  direction  of 
Canon  Harford,  and  with  Dr.  Blackmann  as  its 
medical  spirit. 

This  Guild  proposes,  among  other  things, 
to  provide  a  large  number  of  musicians,  ready 
atanymoment  to  answer  the  summonsof  a  phy- 
sician, and  specially  trained  to  sing  and  play 
the  very  soft  music  that  should  be  administered 
151 


For  My  MxisicaLl  Friend 

to  those  whose  nerves  are  weakened  by  illness. 
It  will  obtain  the  best  advice  regarding  the 
classes  of  illness  liable  to  find  music  beneficial. 

Already  there  have  been  numerous  test  cases 
of  the  most  satisfactory  kind.  The  Guild  has 
a  permanent  choir,  consisting  of  three  vocalists 
— soprano,  contralto  and  baritone — and  three 
instrumentalists — first  and  second  violin  and 
harp.  Performances  have  been  given  at  the 
St.  Pancras  Infirmary  and  the  London  Temper- 
ance Hospital.  On  one  occasion  a  patient 
suffering  from  dropsy,  and  another  who  had 
been  hurt  in  a  railway  accident,  both  of  whom 
had  been  shedding  tears  from  nervous  depres- 
sion, were  soothed  by  the  music  and  testified 
that  the  pain  kept  off  while  it  was  being  played, 
returning  after  it  had  ceased.  A  female  patient 
suffering  from  melancholia,  to  whom  a  lullaby 
was  played,  told  the  nurse  that  she  liked  it 
very  much.  This  was  the  first  time  she  had 
spoken  for  a  fortnight.  A  male  patient,  suffer- 
ing from  delirium  tremens,  became  calm  and 
attentive  on  listening  to  the  music. 

Canon  Harford  draws  a  distinction  between 

152 


Mxisic  qls  Medicine 

the  music  that  should  be  given  to  alleviate  pain 
and  that  to  produce  sleep.  In  the  latter  case 
he  thinks  it  should  be  very  soft  and  monot- 
onous, while  when  meant  to  distract  the  mind 
from  pain  it  should  be  of  a  more  attractive 
order,  but  still  soft.  He  says  it  is  difficult  to 
find  vocalists  who  can  sing  softly  enough,  and 
proposes  to  have  them  trained  with  this  particu- 
lar object  in  view.  It  has  not  been  clearly  de- 
termined whether  lively  and  exhilarating  airs 
may  not  be  desirable  in  some  cases,  but  it  is 
thought  that  soft  music,  at  least,  runs  no  risk 
of  injuriously  exciting  the  patient. 

Doctor  Blackmann  asserts  that  violins  have 
the  greatest  therapeutic  value,  harps  coming 
next,  while  he  thinks  tenors  should  sing  to 
female  patients  and  sopranos  to  male.  Both 
he  and  the  worthy  canon  have  decided  from 
their  experiences  that  music  is  a  potent  medi- 
cine, and  its  effects  should  be  as  carefully 
studied  as  those  of  any  other  medicine. 

Some  one  suggests  that  the  natural  develop- 
ment of  this  new  school  of  the  healing  art 
should'  be  pursued  and  the  composers  properly 

J  53 


For  My  M\isicaLl  Friend 

classified,  as  a  patient  needing  a  dose  of  Haydn 
might  be  seriously  affected  by  having  Wagner 
administered.  Another  writer  jocularly  in- 
quires if  the  druggist  of  the  future  will  have 
to  be  the  graduate  of  a  conservatory  of  music, 
and  if  the  supply  of  the  new  drug  will  be  in 
liquid  form.  He  hopes  the  latter,  as  he  has 
found  so  much  lately  of  an  opposite  nature. 
He  reminds  druggists,  too,  that  the  remedy  has 
been  so  greatly  slaughtered  in  the  past,  the 
public  might  be  spared  the  announcement  of  a 
cut  in  prices,  and  asks  if  the  music-boxes  form- 
ing part  of  the  stock-in-trade  of  the  up-to-date 
apothecary  shop  are  merely  forerunners  of  this 
final  condition  of  affairs. 

There  is  always  more  or  less  that  is  ludi- 
crous connected  with  every  attempt  to  grope 
through  mysterious  passages  to  the  light.  The 
zealous  will  stumble  and  blunder,  and  perhaps 
be  guilty  of  many  absurd  attempts.  Neverthe- 
less, if  the  goal  be  a  noble  one,  and  the  inten- 
tions of  the  gropers  be  honest  and  pure,  the 
striving  will  not  be  fruitless. 

The  air  is  full  just  now  of  desire  and  effort 
J  54 


Music  ats  Medicine 

to  grasp  the  truest  methods  of  music  study, 
the  best  means  of  applying  the  divine  art  as 
a  source  of  discipline  and  elevation  and  of  ap- 
propriating, to  the  largest  possible  degree,  the 
blessings  it  contains  within  itself  for  human- 
ity. Whatever  there  may  be  in  this  latest  at- 
tempt to  mate  music  and  medicine  calculated 
to  excite  the  risibles  of  the  fun-lover,  at  least 
all  must  admit  that  no  harm  can  result  from  it. 
If  it  simply  lead  some  of  those  who  have  been 
blessed  with  musical  talent  and  training  to 
minister  to  the  ills  of  their  less  favored  fellow- 
creatures,  a  great  and  charitable  work  will  be 
accomplished. 


J  55 


XIV 

The  Hotrp  aLi\d  Harpers 

No  musical  instrument  can  boast  of  so  long 
and  honorable  a  pedigree  as  the  harp;  about 
none  other  clusters  such  a  wealth  of  legendary 
lore,  poetry  and  romance.  It  is  the  musical 
instrument  of  religion  and  prophecy,  the  musi- 
cal instrument  that  held  so  sacred  a  place  in 
the  vision  of  the  beloved  John  who  heard  on 
Mount  Zion  the  voice  of  harpers  harping  with 
their  harps. 

It  has  been  said  that  poetry  died  out  of  every- 
day life  with  the  passing  of  the  spinning-wheel 
and  the  harp.  If  this  be  true,  its  return  is 
at  hand,  for  w^e  have  a  new  wheel  and  a  new 
harp.  Walt  Whitman  saw  the  hope  of  America 
in  the  great  West.  From  the  great  West,  from 
Chicago,  the  city  of  promise,  comes  the  new 
harp,  the  modern  harp,  the  most  perfect  harp 
that  has  yet  existed.     Poetry  is  not  dead. 

J57 


For  My  MusicsLl  Friend 

Time  was  when  noble  knight  and  lady  fair 
found  their  joyance  and  solace  in  the  harp. 
It  was  the  most  highly-cherished  musical  in- 
strument in  many  lands  and  ages,  the  choicest 
adornment  for  castle-hall,  and  lordly  mansion. 
The  ancient  harp  was  parent  of  the  harpsichord, 
and,  through  it,  ancestor  of  the  piano. 

It  is  eminently  fitting  for  the  modern  harp 
to  take  its  place  in  our  drawing-rooms  and 
music-halls  with  the  modern  piano,  whose  close 
relation  it  is. 

Various  traditions  claim  for  various  nations 
the  birthplace  of  the  harp.  The  oldest  record 
of  its  existence  is  its  form  graven  on  an  Egyp- 
tian tomb,  dated  by  some  authorities  at  4,000 
B.  c.  It  is  found  on  numerous  monuments  of 
Egpyt,  appears  accompanied  by  female  as  well 
as  male  performers,  and  varies  greatly  in  size. 
Sometimes  it  is  carried  by  the  performers,  some- 
times played  in  a  sitting  posture,  while  the 
great  Temple  Harp,  about  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury B.  c,  is  six  and  one  half  feet  high  and  was 
played  standing.  Whatever  its  size,  the  harp 
of  Egypt  has  always  great  beauty  of  form,  is 
\5S 


The  Harp  and  Harpers 

frequently  highly  ornamented,  is  bow-shaped, 
forming  the  fragment  of  an  ellipse,  and  is  with- 
out a  front  pillar  to  support  the  tension  of  the 
strings. 

The  Assyrian  harp  was  of  lighter  weight, 
and  as  depicted  on  the  famous  bas-reliefs,  ex- 
cavated from  the  mounds  near  the  Tigris,  was 
about  four  feet  high.  Every  testimony  proves 
the  harp  of  the  Israelites  as  well  to  be  a  small 
portable  instrument.  But  to  what  noble  pur- 
poses was  it  not  applied !  The  Old  Testament 
is  full  of  the  poetry  of  the  harp.  In  Greece 
the  popular  member  of  the  harp  family  was 
the  lyre,  but  large  and  small  harps  of  the 
Egyptian  pattern  were  also  known. 

Diodorus  Siculus,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era,  writes  of  an  island  city  sacred 
to  Apollo,  the  majority  of  whose  inhabitants 
were  harpers,  continually  harping  in  the  mag- 
nificent temple  of  the  place,  and  singing  lyrical 
hymns  of  praise  to  the  god,  who  himself  de- 
scended among  the  people  every  nineteenth 
year,  rejoicing  them  with  his  glorious  harp- 
playing.  The  people  were  called  Hyperbo- 
159 


For  My  M\isical  Friend 

reans,  and  their  island  was  in  the  ocean  over 
against  Celtica.  Hecatseus,  the  Milesian,  500 
B.  c,  is  the  authority  cited.  Some  critics  have 
believed  these  Hyperboreans  to  have  been  in- 
habitants of  Britain;  others  have  traced  them 
to  the  Scandinavian  North — their  name  means 
literally,  Beyond  the  North  Wind;  still  others 
have  pronounced  them  purely  mythical. 
Whether  their  existence  be  fact  or  fiction,  their 
story  is  an  ancient  tribute  to  the  harp. 

Abundant  harp  lore  revolves  about  the  bards 
and  druids  of  early  Britain.  The  oldest  of 
these  are  claimed  by  the  Irish,  whose  bardic 
order  dates  back  500  years  before  our  present 
era.  The  harp  is  supposed  to  have  appeared 
with  a  colony  of  Iberian  Spaniards,  who  in- 
vaded the  Isle  of  Destiny  (Ireland)  1015  b.  c. 

The  wise  King  Ollamh-Fodla,  in  druidic 
times,  endowed  at  Tara,  his  capital,  a  college, 
called  Wall  of  the  Learned.  Here  was  formed 
the  Bardic  Association,  and  here  music,  to 
which  the  ancient  life  of  Ireland  moved,  was 
sedulously  cultivated.  Laws,  religion,  science, 
history  and  literature  were  set  to  music,  and 
160 


The  Harp  and  Harpers 

to  instruct  the  people  they  were  intoned  at 
pubHc  assemblages  to  the  accompaniment  of  the 
harp. 

The  Ard-File,  or  chief  bard,  clad  in  white, 
with  a  golden  circlet  on  his  head,  sat  next  the 
king  at  royal  banquets,  and  by  his  side  lay  his 
golden  harp.  In  moments  of  divine  frenzy  he 
swept  its  chords  to  chants  of  love  or  in  praise 
of  immortal  heroes.  He  marched  in  front  of 
the  troops  to  the  battlefield,  animating  them 
with  magnificent  martial  harp-strains.  When 
he  wandered  through  the  land,  fifty  minor 
bards  were  permitted  to  attend  him,  and  their 
persons  were  held  sacred.  Slaying  a  harper- 
bard  entailed  out-lawing  in  this  life  and  a  vague 
but  none  the  less  terrible  supernatural  penalty 
in  the  next.  On  the  downfall  of  Ireland's 
splendor  the  harp  became  mute  in  Tara's  halls. 

Tom  Moore,  in  his  Melodies,  relates  that  the 
harp  was  once  a  siren  of  old  who  dwelt  under 
the  sea,  and  who  wept  so  piteously  for  the  faith- 
less youth  she  loved  that  Heaven  in  pity 
changed  her  soft  form  to  the  harp.  Her  hair 
falling  over  her  white  arms  made  the 
\6l 


For  My  Musicecl  Friend 

gold  strings,  and  all  her  sea-beauties  grace- 
fully curled  about  the  frame.  Other  legends 
tell  that  the  Irish  airs,  so  plaintive  and  tear- 
compelling,  are  but  the  faintly-remembered 
echoes  of  fairy  harp  music  once  heard  through 
hill  and  dale. 

Among  Welsh  fairies  the  harp  figures  to  an 
extent  unknown  elsewhere.  The  Tylwyth- 
Teg  (fairy- folk),  make  music  with  it  behind 
the  waterfalls,  and  when  they  go  over  the 
mountains  the  tones  of  their  harps  are  heard 
dying  away  behind  them.  The  harp  of  mortals 
was  carried  to  Wales,  as  according  to  Dante 
it  was  carried  to  Italy,  by  Irish  harper-bards. 
It  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  national  instru- 
ment, and  to  this  day  is  honored  at  the  Eistedd- 
fod, the  congress  for  promoting  the  culture 
of  Welsh  national  poetry  and  music,  instituted 
in  the  twelfth  century. 

One  of  England's  most  charming  harp 
stories  is  that  of  King  Alfred.  In  the  storm 
and  stress  of  a  Danish  invasion  this  monarch 
had  been  forced  to  seek  concealment.  His 
faithful  followers  soon  rallied  about  him,  and 

\62 


The  Ha.rp  atnd  Hatrpers 

he  resolved  to  spy  out  the  enemy's  plans.  Dis- 
guising himself  as  a  Danish  harper,  he  entered 
the  hostile  camp,  and  so  won  the  Danes  by  his 
superb  playing  of  their  favorite  songs,  for  he 
was  a  skillful  harper,  that  the  desired  knowl- 
edge was  gained  and  the  invaders  eventually 
vanquished.  It  was  this  Alfred  who  in  866 
A.  D.  established  a  chair  of  music  at  Oxford. 

In  the  Scottish  Highlands  famous  harper- 
bards  are  claimed  for  the  third,  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  and  flour- 
ished al)undantly  in  mediaeval  and  later  times. 
Down  to  the  eighteenth  century  the  harper 
among  the  Celtic  tribes  of  Scotland  was  ex- 
pected to  lead  the  clan  to  battle  with  inspiriting 
music.  Sir  Walter  Scott  makes  frequent  refer- 
ences to  tlie  harp  as  a  popular  instrument. 

All  Scandinavian  peoples  have  their  tradi- 
tions of  mysterious  beings,  playing  on  harps 
of  gold.  The  Neck,  or  water-sprite  of  Nor- 
way, appears  on  the  waters  of  an  evening, 
singing  most  enchanting  lays  to  the  accompani- 
ment of  his  gold  harp.  He  has  a  flowing  white 
beard,  wears  a  gold  crown,  and  teaches  the 
J  63 


For  My  Mvisicatl  Friend 

secrets  of  music  to  those  who  love  it.  The 
sea-king  of  the  Swedes  dwells  in  emerald  halls 
in  unfathomed  seas,  and  pours  out  on  the  harp, 
over  whose  strings  his  hands  are  continually 
straying,  his  profound  yearning.  A  proud 
place  is  held  by  the  harp  in  the  tales  of  Scandi- 
navian heroes  of  romance  and  history. 

The  royal  harper,  Heimer,  says  an  Icelandic 
legend,  had  a  large  harp  constructed,  and  in  its 
body,  concealed  from  enemies  who  would  have 
slain  her,  his  foster-child,  golden-haired 
Aslaug,  the  two-year-old  daughter  of  Brynhild, 
the  Valkyrie,  and  Sigurd,  the  Niblung  hero. 
In  beggar's  guise  he  wandered  northward  with 
his  precious  burden,  and  when  the  v;ee  maiden 
grew  restless  in  the  presence  of  others,  he  lulled 
her  to  quiet  with  his  harping.  He  was  finally 
murdered  for  the  gold  it  was  discovered  he 
bore  with  him;  but  the  child,  softening  hard 
hearts  with  her  loveliness,  was  tenderly  reared 
by  an  aged  couple  and  finally  married  a  king. 

The  Finns  attribute  the  harp  to  the  Kale- 
vala  hero,  the  wise  and  ancient  minstrel,  Wain- 
amomen,  who  constructed  the  lasting  joy 
164 


The  Harp  ak.i\d  Ha-rpers 

and  pride  of  Suomi  from  the  fragments  of  a 
feast  on  the  mighty  Pike  of  Northland.  The 
enchanting  arches  he  made  from  the  jawbones 
of  the  monster,  the  pins  from  pike  teeth,  and 
the  harp-strings  from  maiden's  Iiair.  When 
Wainamoinen  played,  all  the  people,  the  birds 
of  the  air  and  the  beasts  of  forest  and  field 
hastened  to  hear  the  high-born  hero's  harping. 

This  recalls  the  tale  of  Horand,  the  royal 
Danish  harper  of  the  German  epic  Gudrun,  for 
when  he  struck  his  harp-strings  the  cattle  left 
their  green  pastures,  the  birds  became  silent, 
the  fish  ceased  to  dart  in  the  brook,  the  church 
bells  no  longer  sounded  sweet,  priests  and 
people  forsook  the  church,  and  all  hastened  to 
hear  him.  As  for  young  Hilde,  daughter  of 
Wild  Hagen,  of  Ireland,  she  was  so  moved  by 
his  lay  she  consented  to  follow  him  to  the  land 
of  his  liege  lord.  King  Hetel,  for  whom  he  had 
come  to  woo  her. 

The  mediaeval  harp  of  Northland,  the  harp  of 
Troubadour,  Minnesinger,  Meistersinger  and 
strolling  minstrel,  had  increased  its  capabilities 
by  the  addition  of  the  so-called  Gothic  pillar. 

165 


For  My  Musicak.!  Friend 

From  time  to  time  new  improvements  were 
added,  but  no  signal  success  was  achieved  until 
Sebastian  Erard,  of  Paris,  in  1810,  constructed 
the  improved  double-action  harp,  which  re- 
mained the  model  for  all  future  makers. 

The  invention  of  the  piano-forte  interfered 
with  the  public  glory  of  the  harp,  which,  how- 
ever, continued  to  be  the  home  favorite  of  many- 
ladies,  as  it  was  with  Rosa  Dartle  in  "David 
Copperfield."  Few  of  us  who  have  reached 
the  half-century  mile-post  will  fail  to  recall 
some  silent  unused  harp,  about  which  lingered 
memories  of  a  fair  maiden,  long  passed  on- 
ward, whose  white  arms  once  gleamed  about 
it,  and  whose  slender  fingers  swept  its  strings. 
A  taste  for  the  instrument  was  fostered  by  the 
gentle  nuns  of  our  convents,  who  continued  to 
teach  it  if  they  had  but  one  pupil  a  year. 

Our  climate  being  so  severe  on  European 
harps,  the  use  of  the  instrument  declined,  and 
would  have  died  out  had  not  harp  manufacture 
arisen  as  an  American  industry.  As  previously 
indicated,  the  height  of  success  has  been 
reached  in  Chicago,  and  we  now  have  an  Amer- 
166 


The  Ha.rp  a.nd  Harpers 

ican  harp  adapted  to  all  the  requirements  of 
modern  music,  an  American  harp  as  far  su- 
perior to  all  other  harps  as  the  American  piano 
is  superior  to  all  other  pianos. 

Naturally  we  find  ourselves  face  to  face  with 
a  great  harp  revival.  The  number  of  harp 
pupils,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  in  our  music 
schools,  is  rapidly  increasing.  Our  concert 
harpists  are  no  longer  all  Europeans,  and  there 
is  not  now  the  excessive  need  of  tuning  in 
public  that  formerly  annoyed  the  audience. 
The  American  harp  cannot  relegate  the  Ameri- 
can piano  to  the  background,  but  can  proudly 
take  its  place  beside  it. 


167 


XV 

Guitdtr   arvd   MaLndolin.  —  TKeir 
Story  dLnd  Mission 

On  the  same  principle  that  it  is  better  to 
play  easy  music  well  than  difficult  music  badly, 
it  is  better  to  play  on  a  small  musical  instru- 
ment with  artistic  excellence  than  to  be  a  bun- 
gler on  a  large  one.  Two  faithful  servitors 
of  music  among  minor  instruments,  the  guitar 
and  mandolin,  are  at  present  enjoying  a  well 
merited  prominence.  The  dignity  of  their 
story  and  the  importance  of  their  mission  com- 
mand respect. 

Whoever  has  used  the  guitar  as  a  first  musi- 
cal instrument  will  ever  hold  it  in  tender  re- 
gard. It  affords  a  delightful  introduction  to 
a  musical  education,  quickening  the  suscepti- 
bilities, sharpening  the  ear  and  awakening  a 
keen  sense  of  harmony.  It  furnishes  a  re- 
fined means  of  entertainment  for  those  whose 
169 


For  My  Musicatl  Friend 

time  for  music  is  limited,  while  patient  industry 
and  broad  musical  experience  are  required  to 
control  its  full  range  of  effects.  A  well  con- 
ceived, three-voiced  fugue  has  been  success- 
fully produced  on  the  guitar.  This  speaks 
volumes. 

The  mandolin  furnishes  a  desirable  prepara- 
tion for  the  violin,  as  the  guitar  does  for  the 
harp  or  piano.  Together  the  two  small  instru- 
ments provide  most  agreeable  home  music,  one 
well  supplementing  the  other. 

In  urging  the  higher  claims  of  their  instru- 
ment, mandolinists  should  not  neglect  to  men- 
tion that  Beethoven  wrote  a  "Sonatina"  for  the 
mandolin  for  his  friend  Krumpholz,  a  mando- 
lin virtuoso.  The  autograph  manuscript  of 
this  work  is  preserved  in  the  British  Museum. 

Once  it  was  thought  that  the  most  meager 
musical  attainments  would  suffice  to  teach  the, 
guitar  or  mandolin,  and  men  and  women  who 
had  failed  in  other  musical  branches  ha^jtened 
to  grasp  the  new  opening.  It  is  now  realized 
that  to  be  a  successful  teacher  of  these  instru- 
ments requires  an  artistic  knowledge  of  their 
J  70 


Guitar  and  MeLndoIin 

capacity,  and  the  philosophy  of  making  pure, 
beautiful  tone  rise  superior  to  the  clanging  and 
twanging  of  the  strings. 

A  taste  is  being  cultivated  for  refined  music, 
the  soul  prepared  for  grand  orchestra,  by  the 
mandolin  orchestras  now  in  vogue,  composed 
of  mandolins,  guitars  and  harps,  with  the  addi- 
tion of  a  violin  or  flute  to  strengthen  the 
melody,  and  of  a  violoncello  to  give  background 
to  the  bass.  The  demand  for  artistic  teachers 
and  leaders  in  this  field  is  in  excess  of  the 
supply.  Of  inferior  ones  there  is  a  super- 
abundance. 

Both  gviitar  and  mandolin  belong  to  the  lute 
family,  the  one  being  an  offspring  of  the  kind 
struck  by  the  fingers,  the  other  of  that  manip- 
ulated by  a  plectrum.  The  monuments  of 
Egypt  display  lutes  as  well  as  harps,  with  male 
and  female  players.  One  Egyptian  instru- 
ment with  seven  pairs  of  strings,  called  the 
Ood,  is  mandolin-shaped  and  played  with  a 
quill  from  a  vulture's  feather. 

The  ancient  vina,  or  national  lute  of  India, 
is  an  instrument  of  the  guitar  kind.  It  is 
\7\ 


For  My  MvisicaLl  Friend 

lauded  to  the  skies  for  the  perfection  of  its 
tuning  in  early  Hindu  poetry.  Sarasvati,  the 
peerless  consort  of  mighty  Brahma,  gave  it  to 
mankind,  and  Nareda,  beloved  son  of  the 
divine  pair,  could  evoke  from  it  infinitely  sweet 
and  varied  tones.  So  says  tradition.  The 
Hindu  sitar  and  rabab  are  shaped  like  the 
European  guitar.  The  rabab  has  a  set  of  under 
strings  which  vibrate  in  sympathy  with  its  chief 
strings,  something  like  the  Norwegian  Har- 
danger  peasant  fiddle. 

Similar  to  the  modern  guitar  was  the 
Hebrew  psaltery.  To  the  same  family  be- 
longed the  mahalath,  to  whose  chief  musician 
the  sweet  singer  of  Israel  dedicated  a  number 
of  psalms. 

Some  two  thousand  years  ago  a  performer 
on  the  kithera,  or  Greek  guitar,  played  for  the 
philosopher  Dorian  an  original  composition 
representing  a  storm  at  sea.  "I  have  seen  a 
much  better  storm  in  a  pot  of  boiling  water," 
said  Dorian  when  asked  how  he  liked  it.  Thus 
arose  the  expression,  "a  tempest  in  a  tea-pot." 

The  Chinese,  Japanese,  Persians  and  Ara- 
172 


Guitar  atrid  Mandolin. 

J 
bians  all  have  their  representatives  of  the  lute. 
From  the  Arabians,  through  the  Moors,  came 
to  the  Spaniards  the  model  for  the  Spanish 
guitar. 

Boccaccio,  Chaucer,  Shakespeare  and  other 
writers  make  frequent  mention  of  the  lute, 
which  was  the  guitar's  direct  forerunner  in 
several  countries.  Forty  lutes  were  employed 
in  a  masque  given  in  London  to  Charles  I.  and 
his  Queen  by  members  of  the  Inns  of  Court. 
During  the  sixteenth  and  first  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth centuries,  the  lute  held  sway  in  England. 
Its  decline  was  lamented  as  a  sign  of  depraved 
taste.  As  it  cost  as  much  to  keep  a  European 
lute  in  order  as  to  keep  a  horse,  it  does  not 
seem  strange  that  the  instrument  went  out  of 
fashion. 

Guitar-playing  became  so  popular  in  London 
a  century  ago  as  seriously  to  damage  the  spinet 
and  harpsichord  trade.  Kirkman,  the  famous 
harpsichord  maker  of  that  day,  had  his  ware- 
rooms  crowded  with  second-hand  instruments 
of  his  own  make  that  had  been  exchanged  for 
guitars.  In  self-defense  he  presented  a  lot  of 
J  73 


For  My  MusicaLl  Friend 

cheap  guitars  to  persons  in  the  lower  walks  of 
life.  As  a  result,  the  guitar  gained  a  vulgar 
reputation,  and  polite  society  returned  to  the 
harpsichord. 

The  founder  of  the  modern  school  of  guitar- 
playing  was  Ferdinand  Carulli,  a  Neapolitan, 
born  in  1770.  He  created  his  own  system  of 
fingering,  wrote  his  own  studies  and  exploded 
the  theory  that  the  guitar  could  only  be  played 
in  certain  keys.  He  left  a  treatise  on  harmony 
as  applied  to  the  guitar,  a  method,  showing  the 
natural  position  of  all  chords,  and  four  hun- 
dred compositions.  His  work  was  developed 
by  his  successor,  Mateo  Carcassi. 

Among  the  productions  of  Stradivarius,  the 
great  violin-maker,  were  two  guitars  of  a 
peculiar,  pear-shaped  pattern.  Paganini  de- 
voted several  of  his  early  years  to  the  study  of 
the  guitar,  and  Hector  Berlioz  played  no  other 
musical  instruments  than  the  guitar  and  flute. 

The  therbo,  or  arch-lute,  mentioned  in  Ros- 
tand's "Cyrano  de  Bergerac,"  was  the  fore- 
runner of  the  contra-bass  harp  guitar  now  man- 
ufactured in  Chicago,  which  adds  to  the  usual 
J74 


GuitaLF  and  MoLndolin. 

six  strings  of  the  modern  guitar,  a  dozen  long 
bass  strings  capable  of  emitting  rich,  harp-like 
tones.  Another  new  concert  guitar  displays 
a  dozen  or  more  extra  strings  in  the  treble  as 
well  as  in  the  bass. 

The  mandolin  is  the  most  perfect  bloom 
among  minor  instruments  resulting  from  the 
evolution  of  those  well  grounded  principles  on 
which  the  lute  is  based.  In  many  respects  it 
resembles  that  instrument  of  ten  strings  re- 
ferred to  with  the  harp  and  psaltery  by  the 
Psalmist. 

One  of  the  earliest  mandolins  on  record  was 
made  by  Calastro  Parochia,  of  Padua,  in  1620, 
and  had  five  pairs  of  strings.  Giorgia  Battiste, 
a  Neapolitan,  in  1712,  made  a  mandolin  with 
four  pairs  of  strings,  and  this  is  the  model  of 
our  modern  mandolin.  There  are  in  use 
several  varieties  of  the  latter,  including  the 
mandola,  or  great  mandolin;  the  pandora,  or 
Neapolitan  greater  mandolin ;  the  mandora,  or 
short-necked  mandolin-guitar;  the  bandora,  or 
Portuguese  guitar,  and  the  bandurria,  or  Span- 
ish mandolin-guitar. 

175 


For  My  Musical  Friend 

The  plectrum,  pen,  or  pick  now  mostly  in 
use  is  made  of  tortoise  shell  or  bone.  It  re- 
placed the  quill  because  it  was  found  that  a 
better  tone  could  be  produced  with  it. 

No  instrument  has  been  more  misunderstood 
than  the  mandolin,  but  its  true  value  is  now 
being  recognized.  If  studied  according  to  a 
correct  method  it  is  capable  of  affording  a  high 
degree  of  artistic  pleasure. 

Many  masterworks  for  the  violin  can  be  so 
reproduced  on  the  mandolin  as  to  afford  much 
satisfaction  to  both  player  and  listener.  To 
attain  the  best  results  a  strict  technical  and 
artistic  training  is  essential. 

Introduced  under  the  right  influence,  these 
minor  musical  instruments  have  a  broad  mis- 
sion. They  furnish  acceptable  means  of  cul- 
tivating and  refining  the  musical  taste. 
Through  them  familiarity  with  the  tone-lan- 
guage may  be  gained.  In  cases  where  louder 
instruments  might  prove  an  annoyance  to 
others,  or  be  otherwise  objectionable,  every 
combination  of  melodious  and  harmonious 
tones  may  be  enjoyed  and  studied  through 
J76 


^fStAnSe- 


T^T^-'r^=^- 


^C.i-.-^     ou.^   i'i(^ii<r>-^^>. 


Gxiitatr  a^nd  Mandolin. 

their  agency.  By  means  of  them  an  acquaint- 
ance with  the  higher  Hterature  of  music  may 
be  attained.  Musicians  would  do  well  to  en- 
courage their  legitimate  use. 


177 


XVI 

As  to  the  History  of  Music 

An  authority  on  musical  subjects  has  most 
emphatically  pronounced  the  history  of  music 
a  useless  study  unless  it  can  aid  pupils  in  mak- 
ing beautiful  and  impressive  music.  He  is 
right.  A  dull,  lifeless  course  in  the  history  of 
music  is  utterly  profitless.  Merely  to  burden 
the  mind  with  a  dead  weight  of  names  and 
dates  can  help  no  one  to  gain  a  vital  compre- 
hension of  music.  A  true  comprehension  of 
the  history  of  the  art,  embracing  its  philosophy, 
evolution  and  all  that  pertains  to  its  broad 
field,  cannot  fail  to  be  a  powerful  factor  in  a 
correct  understanding  of  music,  and,  conse- 
quently, in  enabling  a  student  to  listen  intelli- 
gently, and  interpret  impressively. 

In  order  properly  to  estimate  the  creations 
\19 


For  My  Mvisica.!  Friend 

of  the  human  mind,  it  is  essential  to  become 
familiar  with  the  conditions  amid  which  they 
came  into  being  and  the  materials  of  which  they 
are  composed.  This  is  universally  admitted 
where  the  language  and  literature  of  words 
are  concerned.  Careful  consideration  of  the 
subject  will  show  it  to  be  equally  true  in  regard 
to  the  language  and  literature  of  tones. 

Music  has  been  called  the  most  subjective  of 
all  arts,  because  there  is  no  more  perfect  mirror 
of  the  spiritual  and  emotional  consciousness 
of  mankind,  and  because  the  ideal  of  the  artist 
as  expressed  in  tone-forms,  having  no  model 
in  nature,  is  the  result  of  life's  experiences  re- 
acting in  his  own  breast.  In  the  forms  by 
which  it  is  known  to  us,  this  language  of  tones 
is  a  product  of  our  civilization,  but  its 
prime  elements  may  be  traced  as  far  back 
as  we  can  trace  humanity.  It  has  as  strongly 
defined  fundamental  principles  as  the  language 
of  words.  A  knowledge  of  the  origin  and 
growth  of  these  principles,  of  the  tone-forms 
to  which  they  gave  rise  and  of  the  crude  mate- 
rials with  which  they  had  to  deal,  cannot  fail 

J  80 


As  to  the  History  of  Music 

to  awaken  some  realization  of  the  dignity  and 
worth  of  music. 

From  a  study  of  its  history  we  learn  that 
the  function  of  music  is  to  depict  the  soul's 
deepest  and  grandest  feelings,  to  express  those 
profound  emotions  and  aspirations  for  which 
words  are  inadequate.  We  learn  from  it  that  as 
man  has  developed,  as  his  inner  being  has  be- 
come enriched  by  his  experiences,  there  has 
grown  with  his  growth  this  wonderful  tone- 
language  which  alone  can  give  utterance  to  the 
lofty  ideals  forever  haunting  mortal  man. 

The  history  of  music  is  a  reliable  guide  to 
that  of  human  progress.  Each  era  has  its 
musical  system.  To  understand  the  progress 
of  music  is  to  understand  that  of  civilization, 
for  the  two  have  made  their  onward  strides 
together. 

A  study  of  this  history  shows  how  a  people's 
folk-songs  are  the  spontaneous,  impersonal 
utterances  of  that  people's  national  sentiments 
and  characteristics.  It  shows  how  notation 
advanced,  how  harmony  and  tone-forms  have 
developed  in  the  past  two  hundred  years,  and 


For  My  MMsicatl  Friend 

how  the  domain  of  music  widened  as  observa- 
tion taught  men  the  intimate  relations  between 
musical  utterances  and  our  inner  life.  It 
teaches  that  purely  instrumental  music  is  but 
a  recent  art,  which,  through  Mozart  acquired 
a  most  eloquent  tongue,  and  through  Beethoven 
embarked  on  a  psycliological  voyage  whose 
goal  has  not  yet  been  reached. 

We  learn  from  it  that  the  free,  strong,  com- 
plex individuality  of  our  nineteenth  century 
humanity  was  needed  to  ripen  music  into  the 
vigorous  ^  personal  art  of  to-day.  It  makes 
us  long  to  know  what  the  twentieth  century 
may  accomplish  for  the  art.  It  fills  the  mind 
with  delightful  hopes  and  anticipations  of  a 
day  when  the  language  of  the  emotions,  the 
language  of  the  sympathies,  may  draw  human 
beings  nearer  together  in  the  bonds  of  intelli- 
gent union. 

In  truth,  the  study  of  the  history  of  music 
opens  the  doors  to  a  delightful  world  of  thought 
and  fancy.  The  application  of  modern  scien- 
tific methods  to  the  study  is  a  matter  of  recent 
date,  and  is  doing  much  toward  giving  music 

\S2 


As  to  the  History  of  Music 

its  rightful  place  as  a  great  social  force,  a 
means  of  adding  glorious  lustre  to  daily  life. 

There  is  a  growing  realization  that  every  per- 
son with  any  pretensions  to  genuine  culture 
should  have  some  conception  of  what  music  is, 
and  how  it  reached  its  present  estate.  From 
the  number  of  books  that  have  appeared  of  late 
in  these  lines,  and  from  the  increasing  demand 
for  these  books,  it  is  apparent  that  music  is  at 
last  bursting  the  bonds  of  that  isolation  to 
which  a  mistaken  conception  of  its  nature  con- 
demned it,  and  where  it  was  reserved  for  the 
favored  few  who  possessed  that  mysterious 
quality  known  as  talent  for  music.  More  and 
more  it  is  appreciated  that  the  blessings  of  the 
divine  art  are  manifold  and  universal. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  ancients,  in  their 
poetic  legends,  ascribed  to  music  a  divine 
origin.  A  discriminating  study  of  its  history 
proves  it  to  have  an  origin  as  divine  as  that 
of  humanity  and  of  religion,  whose  faithful 
comrade  it  has  been  in  all  ages  and  all  climes. 

Such  a  study  makes  clear  that  the  inflections 
and  cadences  of  the  human  voice,  together  with 
183 


For  My  Musica^l  Friend 

the  rhythmic  pulsations  of  the  human  body, 
caused  by  various  stages  of  emotion,  are  the 
true  foundations  of  music.  It  teaches  that  the 
childHke  dreams  of  primitive  man  found  utter- 
ance in  simple,  childlike  musical  forms,  that 
these  gradually  became  enlarged  until  well- 
designed,  well-balanced  forms  were  required 
to  voice  the  yearnings  of  a  mature  being  for 
something  loftier  and  higher  than  himself. 

Through  music,  as  its  history  amply  testifies, 
finite  man  may  address,  in  holiest  aspiration, 
infinite  Wisdom,  Power  and  Love.  In  our 
realistic  age  it  becomes  evident  that  music  is 
peculiarly  needed  to  lift  us  on  its  ethereal  wings 
away  from  the  work-a-day  world,  at  least  to- 
ward the  realm  of  the  ideal.  The  illumina- 
tion afforded  by  glimpses  of  this  realm  will 
shed  its  radiance  on  every-day  life. 

"The  study  of  the  history  of  music,"  says 
Schumann,  "supported  by  the  actual  hearing  of 
the  master  compositions  of  the  different  epochs, 
is  the  shortest  way  to  cure  you  of  self-esteem 
and  vanity." 

[What  a  profound  truth  these  words  convey. 
J  84 


J^icHARD  Wagner. 


As  to  Ihe  History  of  Music 

When  we  consider  the  magnificent  results  at- 
tained by  those  who  have  been  compelled  to 
hew  their  way  through  what  would  seem  to 
us  insurmountable  mountains  of  difficulties,  we 
feel  humbled  in  regard  to  our  own  achieve- 
ments, whatever  these  may  be. 

Every  student  of  music  should  be  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  history  of  his  art.  It  will 
yield  him  a  plentiful  store  of  intellectual  and 
artistic  enjoyment,  and  will  unquestionably 
aid  him  in  making  beautiful  and  impressive 
music.  No  friend  of  music,  or  of  humanity, 
can  afford  to  be  without  some  familiarity 
with  this  important  branch  of  knowledge. 
Through  it  every  thinker  will  be  convinced 
that  music  is  destined  to  become  an  ever  more 
and  more  powerful  agent  for  good  as  civiliza- 
tion advances. 


THE  END. 


J85 


Index 


PAGE 

Accentuation    26 

Achilles    147 

Acoustics    100 

/Eneid    92 

/Esculapius 147 

Allah    91 

Amateur 34,  94,  95,  127 

Amateur  fashion    94 

Amateurish     ^2 

Ambidexterity    93 

Ambidextrous     93,    97 

America    TZ,    108,  157 

American  girl 33 

"  harp    167 

home    33 

"  industry 166 

"  piano    167 

"  public  schools   "Ji 

"  student     43 

"  women   57 

Americans    73>  129 

J  87 


Index 

PAGE 

Aorta   42 

Apollo   146,   147,  159 

Apollo's    lyre 151 

Arabians    172,    173 

Arabs   91 

Arch-late    174 

Ard-File    161 

Aristoxenus    148 

Arpeggios 39,    58 

Art-form,  characteristic  17 

"  forms,    complicated 29 

"  rhythms     140 

Artistic  imitation   63 

"      interpretation    63,    80 

"      perceptions ^"j 

"      performer    115 

"      skill     63 

Asaph,  sons  of 149 

Aslaug  164 

Athletes,    college 148 

Bach,  Johann  Sebastian 47,  96,  104,  115 

"      fugue    116 

"      preludes  and  fugues 82 

Bach,    Philipp    Emanuel 47,    106,  115 

Bach's   works    105 

Bandora    I7S 

Bandurria    I75 

Bardic    Association 160 

"      Order 160 

188 


Index 

PAGE 

Baritone    152 

Battiste,   Giorgia    175 

Beethoven  g6,  170,  182 

Benjamin,   tribe  of 93 

Benjamites    93 

Berberoff,    Dr 151 

Berlioz  174 

Beschinsky,  Dr  150 

Blackman,    Dr 151,  153 

Boccaccio    173 

Brahma    172 

Brighthelmstone   150 

Britain   160 

British  Museum 170 

Brynhild    164 

Billow,  Hans  von 84,  108 

Buretti,   M 150 

Cairo    108 

Carcassi,  Mateo   174 

Carlyle    90,  1 13 

Carulli,  Ferdinand  174 

Castanets    26 

Catastrophe,  elemental   107 

Celtica    160 

Celtic  tribes  of   Scotland 163 

Centaurs,    wisest    of 147 

Character-buildinj?   55 

Charles  I.  and  his  Queen 173 

Chaucer 173 

189 


Index 

PAGE 

Chesterfield,  Lord 88 

Chicago    157,  174 

Children,   class  of 28 

Chinese    1 72 

Chiron 147 

Chopin  31,  107,  151 

Chopin's  A  minor  Waltz 151 

Chord,  chords 39,  50,  53,  63,  70,  81,  84,  87,  95,  116 

Chorus       86 

Chromatic 39,  123 

Chronicles,  Book  of 93 

Church    choir    30 

Clavichord 105,  115 

Concentration  of  mind  79 

Concerted   pieces    74 

Conservatory  of  Music 154 

Contralto     152 

Copperfield,   David    166 

Counting  aloud   29,  30 

Count-habit    142 

Curative  medicine   145 

"Cyrano   de   Bergerac," 174 

Damper-control    100,  102 

Dampers    99,  104 

Dance   25,   26,  140 

Dancing  and  poetry 24 

"        sacred    26 

"        and   scenic   effect 25 

Danes  163 

J90 


Index 

PAGE 

Danish  harper   163,  165 

"        invasion   162 

Dante   162 

Dartle,  Rosa   166 

Democritus     147 

Diatonic 123 

Dictation  books 73 

Divine  art 23,  38,  53,  65,  135,  155,  183 

"      musician    146 

Dorian   172 

Drama,    Hindu    sacred 25 

"      musical 25 

Druggist  of  the  future 154 

Dual   139 

Ear,  training  the 80 

Egypt    158 

"       monuments   of    171 

Egyptian  instrument  171 

"         pattern    159 

"         priests    25,  146 

tomb  158 

Eisteddfod    162 

Elisha     149 

Emerson    59 

Emotions,  language  of  the 182 

England    162,  173 

English  language   68 

"        literature   46 

Ensemble  playing 127 

J9J 


Index 

J  PAGE 

Erard,   Sebastian    i66 

Etude   2( 

Expression  in  tones 50 

Europeans    167 

Faculties,  physical 97 

Faithful   teacher 96 

Fancy,    poetic    103 

Father  of   Medicine 148 

Feet    .  .* 30 

Ferdinand   1 50 

Figures    28 

Finger    gymnastics    38 

Finns    164 

Flute    148,    171,  174 

"      music   148 

Foliage,  swaying  of  the 21 

Folk-songs    181 

Four-hand  piano  compositions 74 

"          music    133 

"          playing 127 

France    72 

French   hospitals    151 

Fugue,  fugues 82,  96,   105,   116,  180 

Fundamental    principles 45,    68,  180 

Gaertner,  Carl 62,    82 

Galen    148 

German  epic    165 

"  theorist    143 

J  92 


Index 

PAGE 

Girls  who  go  abroad 42 

Gothic  pillar    165 

Grace  notes    "jji 

Grammar    132 

Greece    159 

Greek  classic  lore gi 

Greeks    146 

Gudrun    165 

Guitar    122,    169 — 177 

European    172 

"       Greek   172 

"      Portuguese   175 

"       Spanish    173 

Gymnastics   148 

Hackneyed  passage-work    109 

Hagen,  Wild   165 

Hamilton,    Sir   William 79 

Hammer-fingers    106 

Hardanger  fiddle   172 

Harford,    Canon    151,  1 52 

Harmonics  81,  loi 

Harmony 49,  63,  81,  174,  181 

"          principle    72 

Harp,  harps 145,  149,  152,  153,  157—167,  170 

"        Assyrian    159 

"      of     Israelites    159 

"      Meistersinger     165 

"        "      Minnesinger    165 

"   .    "     Troubadour    165 

193 


Index 

PAGE 

Harp,  guitar,  contra  bass 174 

Harper,    Harper's 157 — 167 

"      bard  161,  163 

Harpist    167 

Harpsichord  158,  173,  174 

Harper's    Bazar    19 

Haydn    154 

Healing  art    153 

Hebrew  Psalmist   25 

"  Psaltery     172 

Hebrews    149 

Hecataeus 160 

Heimar    164 

Helmholtz  100 

Herculean  strength   iii 

Hercules    147 

Hilde    165 

Hindu   poetry    172 

"      sacred  drama  25 

History  of  music 41,   53,   179 — 185 

Homer   147 

Horand    165 

Human   automaton    106 

Hyperboreans   159,  160 

Iberian   Spaniards    160 

Icelandic    legend    164 

Ideal  world    33 

Idle    accomplishment    129 

Iliad   147 

194 


Index 

PAGE 

Improved  methods  of  instruction 57 

Index  of  character 89 

India 24 

"    national   lute  of 171 

Indians,  North  American   146 

Infirmary,  St.  Pancras 152 

Inns   of   Court    173 

Instrument,    cruelly   martyred 62 

Instruments  of  percussion 24 

"        string    19 

"        wind    19 

Intellectual    faculty 23 

Interpretation  sympathetic    27 

Intervals     50,     70 

Intoning    , 25 

Inventions     95 

Ireland    160,  165 

Ireland's   splendor    161 

Irish    160 

"       airs    162 

"       harper-bards  162 

Isaiah   91 

Isle  of  Destiny 160 

Israel,  sweet  singer  of 149,  172 

Italian   tenor    102 

Italy    162 

Japanese    172 

John,   the   beloved I57 

Judges,  Book  of 93 

J95 


Index 

PAGE 

Kalevala    164 

Keyboard,  master  of  the 107 

Kindergarten    45 

King    Alfred    162,  163 

King  Hetel  165 

King  Lear    149 

King  Ollamh-Fodla  160 

Kirkman    173 

Kithera    172 

Klangfarbe    loi 

Krumpholz   170 

Ladies'   World    20 

Language  of  emotions 132 

"  "    higher  nature 48 

"  "     speech 116 

"    tones    68,  180 

Latin    classic    lore 91 

Law  of  association 81 

Left-hand    artist 93 

"        pianist's  89 — 97 

Left-handed  warriors   93 

Legato     39,  121 

"         playing   121 

Legendary    lore    157 

Lie,  Jonas  85 

Life,    underlying   principle   of 21 

Listen    intelligently 179 

Liszt    31.  106 

Literature  of  defined   ideas 131 

J96 


Index 

PAGE 

Literature  of  undefined  emotions 131 

Lofty  ideal  113 

Logical  methods 74 

London    150,   151,  173 

"        Guild  of  St.  Cecilia 151 

"        Lancet  150,  151 

"         Temperance   Hospital    151,  152 

Lullaby    151 

Lute,  lutes 171,   173,  175 

"     European     173 

"    of   India    171 

Luther    134,  149 

Lyre    147 

"     Apollo's   151 

Mahalath  172 

Major 39,  123 

Mandola    175 

Mandolin 145,  169 — 177 

guitar     175 

"         orchestra   171 

"         virtuoso   170 

Mandora     175 

Marx,    Dr 143 

Maynard's  Press  Agency 20 

Measure   137,  138 

Measured  movement 21 

Mechanical  timekeeper  142 

Medical  literati  150 

Medicated  vapor  bath 148 

197 


Index 

PAGE 

Melancholia    1 52 

Melody,  melodies 5 1,  63,  77,  78,  98,  116,  122 

"      harmony  and  rhythm 63 

Memory,   memorize,   memorizing.  ..  .41,   50,   52,   53, 

77—88,  123,  125 

Mental  concentration 52,  69,  iii,  113,  138 

"       discrimination 29 

"      and  physical  discipline 65 

Merz,  Karl 134 

Metre 30,  70,  81,  137,  138,  139 

Metrical  signature  28 

Metronome    141,  142 

Methods,  modern,  scientific 182 

Milesian    160 

Mind,  muscle  and  music 17,  21 — 31 

Minor    39,  123 

Mitchell.    Dr 150 

Moore,  Tom    161 

Moore's  Melodies    161 

Moors    173 

Motive    28,  132 

Motives    116 

Movement 30,  70,  81,  138,  139 

Mozart  182 

Music  and  dancing 24 

"      as   language    28,     31 

"      as  means  of  livelihood 84 

"      as  medicine   145 — 155 

"      boxes    154 

"      history  of   4i»  53.   179—185 

J98 


Index 

PAGE 

Music,  how  it  came  to  be  what  it  is 53 

"      how   to   listen  to 54 

"      how   to   memorize yj — 88 

"       how   to   study 113 — 118 

"      image  of  the  world 41,     55 

"      literature  of 177 

"      noblest  voice  of  the  soul 60 

"      not   for  genius   alone 54,     75 

"       philosophy  of 41 

"      writing    41,115 

Musical  atmosphere 63,    64 

"       dictation     50,     72 

"       discrimination    58 

"      drama 25 

"       forms 28,   58,   140,184 

"      talent 61,  1 19,  155 

"      temperament    103 

"      touch     102,  103 

Musicianship   53,  85,  117 

Muscular  sense   81,    85 

"        stimuli    22 

Mystic  measures  25 

Nareda    172 

National   sentiments    180 

Neapolitan     I74,  I75 

Neck,   or   water  sprite 163 

Nerve  centres    42 

Nervous  diseases   150 

"      stimulus  42 

\99 


Index 

PAGE 

Nervous    tension 36 

Niblung   hero    164 

Nightmare    150 

Nissen,   Erika  Lie 85 

Northland  165 

North   Wind    160 

Norway    163 

Nuance    103 

Object  lesson  109 

Odyssey     147 

Ood 171 

Orchestra 26,  84,  86,  133,  171 

"         Meiningen     84 

Orpheus  147 

Out-of-time    playing 140 

"             performances    143 

"             singing  140 

Overtures    133 

Oxford  chair  of  music 163 

Paderewski    109,  1 10 

Padua  175 

Paganini    174 

Pandora    175 

Paris    'JZy  166 

"     Conservatoire    72,     73 

"      in  Iliad  and  Odyssey   147 

Parochia,    Calastro 175 

Parrot-like 74,  116 

200 


Index 

PAGE 

Part-singing    52 

Partial  tones   loi 

Pascal    87 

Pedagogic  methods 67 

Pedal    99,  126 

Periods    82,   116,  132 

Persians    172 

Phenomenal    fingers    102 

Philadelphia   , . . . .     62 

Philip,   the    Second 26 

Philosopher's  stone 103 

Philosophical    Magazine 150 

Philosophy     41,  132 

Phrase,  phrases.  .  .27,  59,  61,  63,  82,  99,   108.    116,  132 

Phrasing 27,  30,  68,  94,  108,  141,  143 

Physical    apparatus 24 

"      faculties     97 

"       sense    '. 139 

Piano  and  our  girls 33 — 43 

"      lessons     1 19 — 122 

"      training    129 

"      king  of  the 107 

"      my  lady  and  her 129 — 135 

"      poet  of  the 107 

Piano's  bank   2>Z 

Piano-forte,  prophet  of  the 106 

Pianist's    left    hand 89 — 97 

Pike  of  Northland 165 

Pipe    149 

Pipe  organ  19 

20( 


Index 

PAGE 

Pitch    ^01,  123 

Plato    43,  148 

Plectrum   176 

Plutarch   43,  148 

Poetic  imagery   47 

Poetry    24,  157 

Portuguese    175 

Preliminary  exercises  49 

Prelude^    82 

Prophecy  157 

Prophet    106,  149 

Prospero    149 

Psalmist    175 

Psaltery    149,    172,  175 

Psychological  voyage   182 

Public  institutions  of  learning.- 45 

Quintilian    80 

Rabab,  Hindu   172 

Rational    faculty 23 

"        methods    17,   45,  55 

Regularly  recurring  beat 137 

Religion    18,    157,  183 

Religious  exaltation 26 

Repertoire  130 

Rhymes    30 

Rhythm,  rhythms. 21,  22,  26,  27,  28,  29,  31,  43,  60, 

63,  81,   124,    137,   138,    139,    140,    142,  143 

Rhythmic  beat    21 

202 


Index 

PAGE 

"  measure    25 

"  pulsation     143,  184 

"  pulse    31 

"  tattoo    29 

Romance   157 

Rostand  174 

Rubini    102 

Rubinstein 100,   loi,   105,   107,   108,109 

Rudimentary    training     2)1 

"Rules  for  Young  Musicians" 50 

Ruskin  54 

Russian  physician    150 

"        tone-painter    loi 

Sarasvati  172 

Saul    149 

Scale,  scales 39,  50,  58,  87,  u6,  123 

Scandinavian   heroes    164 

North   160 

"              peoples     163 

Scenic  effect  25 

Schopenhauer    55 

Schumann,   Robert 50,   TJ,  83,  86,    117,    137.  184 

Clara    86 

Score  86,  117 

Scottish    Highlands 163 

Scott,   Sir  Walter    163 

Sea-king    164 

Section,  sections 108,  116,  132 

203 


Index 

PAGE 

Seers    149 

Sentences    82 

Seville,  cathedral  of 26 

Shakespeare  137,  149,  173 

Siculus,  Diodorus    159 

Sight-reading 51,    52,    67-75,    117,125 

Sigurd 164 

Singers    30,   74,    137,  130 

Sitar,  Hindu   172 

Solf ege  ^2,  73 

Sonatina    170 

Song    25,  47 

Soprano 30,  152,  153 

Spaniards    173 

Spanish  mandolin-guitar   175 

Spencer,  Herbert   64 

Spinet    105,  173 

Spinning-wheel    157 

Spirit    of    the    Lord 149 

Staccato    39 

St.    Petersburg    102 

Stradivarius    174 

Sti;ing  quartette   94 

Study,  discriminating  183 

Sub-accentuation    27 

Suomi    165 

Swedes    164 

Symphonies    133 

Syncopations    73 

204 


Index 

PAGE 

Tara  i6o 

Tara's  halls  i6i 

Tattoo  28,  29,  30 

Technical  exercises    39,  49 

"          form  or  figure loi 

"          training   46 

Technique 46,  47,  57-56,   loi,  103,  114,  115,  131 

"Tempest"     149 

Tempo   28,  31,   139,   142,  143 

"      rubato    31 

Tenors  153 

Testament,  Old 159 

Testaments,    Old  and   New 91 

Thalberg   107 

Thaletus    147 

Theme    28 

Theory 27,   41,  49,  64,   148,  151 

"      and  practice  151 

Tide,  ebb  and  flow  of  the 21 

Tigris  159 

Timbre    loi,  102 

Timbrel   149 

Time-keeping   137-144 

Tone,  tones 38,  39,  49,  99,  103,  no,  120,  137,  171 

"        color  loi 

"        forms  49,  180,  181 

"        language   40,   131,   132,181 

"        literature    of 180 

Tortois**  shell 176 

Touch  and   technique 61,  6z 

205 


Index 

PAGE 

Touch  and  tone 91-111 

Traditional  methods   45 

Transpose  SO,  82,  133 

Trills    ■ 73 

Triple    28,  139 

Triplets    29 

Troy  147 

Tylwyth   Teg   162 

Tyndall    113 

Understanding  23 

Unity    of    tone 94 

Universal   language 48 

University  45 

Valkyrie    164 

Vibrations     loi 

Vina   171 

Violin 19,  152,  153,  170,  171,  176 

Violoncello   171 

Viper  bite    148 

Virtuosos    137 

Vision  of  genius    138 

Vital   comprehension    179 

"        fingers     loi 

Vocal    apparatus    22 

"         and  instrumental   classes    72 

Vocalists    140,  153 

Voice 19,  23,  51,  52,  64,   147,  183 

Volition,  intelligent  89 

206 


Index 

PAGE 

Vulture's   feather 171 

Wainamoinen    164,  165 

Wagner    18,  154 

Wales  162 

Wall  of  the  Learned 160 

Water-sprite    163 

Wavelike  pulsion  1^3 

Well-balanced   emotions    141 

"  forms    184 

"  individual    43 

Well-trained      bodies ^y 

"  faculties     69 

Welsh  fairies    162 

"      music   and   poetry 162 

Whitman,   Walt    IS7 

Wieck,  Fr 87 

"         Piano    Studies 87 

Wind,  sweep  of  the 21 

Wonderful  harp  19 

Words,   language  of 180 

"        literature  of 180 

Writing  music  from  memory 50 

Zion,    Mount    i57 


207 


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